A Reaper Among Spirits
by Akito Decimo
Summary: ADOPTED FROM CaptainAsh. It's said that the world was built on legends. Tall tales that help us make sense of things too great... ...or too terrifying to believe. Watch as Avatar Korra finds out that one of these legends is true. POSTED CH.3. Please no flames.
1. A Rebel Spirit & A Soul Reaper

Hey Guys! Sorry for not posting anything for like what 3 years... uh never mind that is a long time and you probably guessed that I'm not gonna continue my other story, The White Moon Becomes the Black Sun. As for a reason why, well one thing is that I would have to wait until the manga finishes so I can think better of what I should do with the story. So that story is delayed until I can get a better quality story out of it.

Anyways enjoy this story that I've adopted from CaptainAsh, A Reaper Among Benders. I've changed the title from A Reaper Among Spirits to this, just a heads up.

Also, chapter one is the same as the other story.

Legend of Korra and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon. BLEACH and all related characters belong to Tite Kubo.

And again this story was adopted from CaptainAsh.

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><p>CH. 1: A Soul Reaper and a Rebel Spirit<p>

Cold wind blew as a lone person walked through the icy tundra of the South Pole. He wore an all-black attire with a long coat with a large sword wrapped in bandages on his back. The fact he was doing so at night would make anyone question his sanity, but this individual didn't care what other thought of him. As he walked he came across a peculiar sight. Several people fighting a spirit.

"Spirit, why are you angry with us? What have we done to offend you?" One of them shouted, dressed in airbender robes. The black clad wanderer would say that the airbender's attempts to converse with the spirit had no success, and he was batted away by the entity. Soon the stranger saw something amazing. He saw one of the fighters, a young Water Tribe girl, enter the Avatar State. This caught the attention of both the stranger and the spirit.

"Huh, so that's the Avatar." The stranger said as he made his way down to the fight. The spirit made its way toward the Avatar once more, who lifted herself into the air to dodge its attack, causing the entity to land in the festival market behind her. She shot a number of fire blasts at the spirit from atop of her air spout, but her attacks had no effect, and the spirit grabbed her with one of its tendrils, slamming her into a nearby stack of boxes. The dark spirit stood over the downed Avatar. However before it could do anything more, a shout was heard.

"GETSUGA TENSHO!"

And suddenly a gigantic blast of blue flame struck the spirit, sending it back about 50 feet. It got up, just in time to see a massive blade heading for its head. The spirit dodged as it's attacker kept swiping at it with the massive sword. Korra looked up to see a young man, about her age with bright orange hair fighting off the spirit.

The spirit swiped at the young man, but he blocked it with his sword as it began to glow blue.

"GETSUGA TENSHO!" He shouted again, causing another giant plume of blue fire to fly at the spirit, weakening it greatly. He stood over the downed spirit as he raised his sword, as if to finish it off, but suddenly streams of water began to circle the spirit. Soon the once dark spirit was now bright and appeared docile.

"Go in peace." Said a man as he walked up to the young swordsman.

"That was impressive young man. I've never seen anyone stand against a spirit like that. "The Water Tribe man said as others joined around.

"Uh, thanks." The orange headed firebender replied as he fasted his sword onto his back. As he was about to walk off he found himself being earthbent back around, facing the Avatar herself.

"How'd you do that?! You almost beat a spirit with nothing but a sword!" The Avatar exclaimed, being grateful at being saved but more confused than anything.

"I did do some firebending too. Anyway, I just have a knack when it comes to spirits okay? Simple as that." The orange haired teen said as he then turned around and walked off.

"Wait a second! What's your name?!" The Avatar called out.

"Ichigo Kurosaki." The orange haired swordsman said as he trekked back out into the tundra, fading from sight as he walked into the horizon.

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><p>Story adopted from CaptainAsh.<p>

So how did you like it? Even if I didn't really write this chapter, I thought CaptainAsh did a great job on introducing Ichigo in the ATLA/LOK universe.

I'm working on the next chapter right now, so hopefully the wait won't be long.

**PLEASE REVIEW!**


	2. The Southern Lights&The Spiritual Guide

Hey Guys! Here is Chapter 2 of A Reaper Among Benders. So after the wonderful CaptainAsh did the first chapter, my story starts with this chapter.

**saddas74: **I'm slowly building up Ichigo in the story if I told who he was, where he came from, or how he got his powers all at once then it wouldn't be much of a story now wouldn't it. You will learn a little bit of Ichigo's past in this chapter though if that helps. Also, this story technically is being told in Korra's timeline but I don't want to spoil the chapter so have a read and PM if you have any questions.

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><p>Shiro Shinobi: The Southern Water Tribe is under siege! When Avatar Korra was attacked by a dark spirit, a mysterious teen jumped out to help her. After a little fight, Unalaq was the only one who calmed it down. So, Korra turned her back on Tenzin and chose Unalaq as her new spiritual mentor. This mysterious teen soon left after but not before giving a name. Tenzin and his family left for a vacation at the Southern Air Temple, while Korra remained in the Water Tribe. Will she be able to restore balance between humans and spirits? And who is this "Ichigo Kurosaki"? Stay tuned to find out.<p>

Ichigo: Who is he talking to?

Korra: I have no idea. We think it is just a side effect from his job as an announcer at the Pro-Bending arena.

Ichigo: I'm still wondering who is talking to? Cause nobody here except us, wherever here is.

Korra: Let's leave him be and get out of here.

Shiro: Welcome back, folks! Now we begin our next chapter of our story.

Ichigo: Wait what?

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><p><em><strong>"HOLLOW ICHIGOZANGETSU"**_

_"Flashbacks/Thoughts"_

"Normal Speaking"

Legend of Korra and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon, Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino

BLEACH and all related characters belong to Tite Kubo

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><p>The Southern Lights<p>

"That Water Tribe guy, he doesn't feel right to me." An orange haired, black clad teen spoke to himself as he was walking the tundra of the south pole.

_**"What's wrong, king?" **_A warped voice in the back of his head spoke.

_"Oh you're back. I was wondering where you went?"_ Ichigo thought back.

_**"Huh? You were worried about me, little baby?"** _The voice insulted him.

_"What? No you idiot just thinking whose butt I should kick around here."_ The black clad teen retorted in thought. He was so in distracted with the voice that he didn't notice that he was passing some water tribe huts and bumped into an equally distracted avatar, knocking her down.

"OOOPPPPHHHH! HEY WATCH WHERE YOU ARE GOING?!" Ichigo shouted to the person not knowing who they were.

"WHY DON'T YOU!?" The voice replied. Ichigo looked at the speaker. She was wearing a dark blue hooded parka lined with fur, pale blue baggy pants with an animal pelt tied to her waist with a belt, and a pair of beige boots. She had tanned skin, bright blue eyes, and her hair was a long dark brown colour split into three wolf tails. Two of them in the front, hanging down framing her face and one in the back, put up so it can stay out of her face. She looked up to her assailant.

"Oh it's you from last night." The girl spoke up when she caught his eyes.

"How do you do, Avatar?" The orange haired swordsman exchanged pleasantries, "Here let me help you up." He said offering his hand to help her up.

"Sorry about that, I was occupied with some thoughts." Ichigo apologized.

"Oh you're such a gentleman." The Avatar teased. Ichigo turned his head to the side and started to blush.

"Shut up, why don't you just take an apology, Avatar?" He retorted, still offering his hand. She took it and helped her up pretty easily. Noting his strength, Korra was helped up and started to brush off some excess snow from her pelt.

"The name is not Avatar. It's Korra." At those words, Ichigo's mind went back to a memory long ago.

_"Well I'm off, Soul Reaper."_ A girl's voice echoed in his mind.

_"The name is not Soul Reaper. It's Ichigo Kurosaki."_ Ichigo's own voice echoed back.

_"My name is Rukia Kuchiki."_ The girl replied back.

The orange haired teen turned his shocked face to his normal, scowling one before she could notice. The water tribe girl looked back into Ichigo's eyes. He was taller than she was so she had to look a little bit higher than usual.

"I just wanted to ask about how you did that crazy firebending with that sword, last night?" Korra asked Ichigo while pointing towards his giant sword strapped to his back. The black clad teen just looked at her, a little bit shocked. He got in deep thought, thinking if he should tell her.

_**"Yo Ichigo, why don't you just tell her?"**_ The warped voice was back in his head.

The swordsman was about to retort but then the Avatar waved a hand in his face.

"Ah hello? You kind of spaced out there." Korra got his attention, still looking for an answer.

"Sorry about that," Ichigo said as he put his thought in the back of his head, "but I already told you how I did that."

"Wait, no you didn't you just said that you know some firebending and a little bit about spirits. Not exactly how." The water tribe girl explained.

"Well that's all you need to know." The orange haired teen replied, not giving her an answer. Before the avatar retort, Ichigo beat her to it.

"So what are you doing up so early in the morning?" The orange haired swordsman asked trying to diffuse the situation before it escalated. Korra was calming down from the sudden question but still didn't forget to ask him his secret.

"I was just getting Naga and heading over to the artic camel stalls to meet up with my uncle." The water tribe teen replied to the question.

"You mean that water tribe guy that talked to me last night?" Ichigo asked again as he was curious of whom that guy was.

"Yes his name is Unalaq and he is also the Northern Water Tribe Chief." Korra gave a name to the identity. The swordsman made a mental note that he should keep a close eye to him, something was telling him that the guy was up to no good. Korra was looking at Ichigo's scowled face and waved a hand to his face again, the orange haired teen caught on that he was lost in his thoughts again. He put his thoughts aside and asked another question but before he could the avatar beat him to it.

"Do you always space out like this with other people?" She asked. Another memory filled in his head.

"What's wrong with you always spacing out like that? They're not going to show any mercy if they catch you like that." A girl's voice echoed again in his mind.

Ichigo quickly snapped out of the memory and gave Korra a slight glare then returned to his usual scowl. She saw the glare and immediately thought what did she say that got him angry?

"Anyways who is Naga? Is she your friend or something?" Ichigo asked to redirect the attention from him. That got the avatar excited as she changed from a confused look to grinning from side to side.

"Yeah she is my best friend. You want to go meet her?" Korra excitedly invited the orange haired swordsman. He was reluctant to go with Avatar but ultimately decided to go with her, as he had nothing better to do. They went together to a bigger hut that was close by, which confused Ichigo.

"Does she live this close to you? Why is this hut bigger than the others?" The swordsman asked clearly confused as to why it didn't take that long to reach another person's house and why it was so big.

"Well she is my polar bear dog so she needs to be close and also needs a lot of space." Korra replied in an obvious tone.

"A polar bear …" Was all Ichigo said as a big white ball of fur jumped on him and started licking his face. His hair was starting to look like the end of an ice cream cone when Korra got the white attacker off of the swordsman.

"You're best friends with a polar bear dog?" Ichigo asked while trying to wipe some slobber off.

"Yeah but she seems to warm up to you very fast." The female avatar replied while trying to calm down her friend. Ichigo, on the other hand was still trying to get the slobber off. Naga was as big as a polar bear but had some dog features, most evident in her face and hind legs. She was trying to slobber up Ichigo again but Korra was restraining her.

"Huh usually Naga isn't usually like this when just meets people." Korra a little confused as to why her friend was acting like this.

"So you're the first one to tame a polar bear dog, huh?" Ichigo asked another question.

"Well thanks Captain Obvious." Korra teased. The swordsman turned his head sideways to avoid eye contact, clearly a little bit embarrassed.

"Just wondering, I don't know your personal history with her." Ichigo said as he tried to validate his obvious response.

"Ichigo, this is Naga. Naga, this is Ichigo." Korra quickly introduced them. Ichigo came closer and held out his palm so the polar bear dog could sniff it, also to tell her that he meant no harm. She began to smell and then licked his hand, covering it up with slobber.

"Great I just got this off." Ichigo said while wipping his hand but gave Naga a heart-warming smile. Korra still snickered a bit and led Naga out into the tundra. She got on her polar bear dog and held a hand out to Ichigo. He got the silent gesture, accepted her hand and got on the back of the saddle. They head towards the Glacier Spirits Festival and soon past it, as they started slowed down towards the artic camel stables. The orange haired teen noticed somebody was there tending to a camel and recognized him as the Northern Water Tribe Chief, Unalaq.

"Welcome Korra and that boy from last night." Unalaq welcomed the both of them.

"The name is Ichigo Kurosaki." The swordsman introduced himself and put out his hand.

"Yes, you said that last night as well." Unalaq said while shaking his hand. "I am the Northern Water Tribe's Chief, Unalaq." The moment they shook each other hands, Ichigo noticed something was definitely wrong with the Chief. It felt like a dark spirit was standing right in front of him. He looked at Unalaq square in the eye, not willing to let him catch on his revelation. Ichigo just put on a fake smile.

"Pleased to meet you." He just replied.

"Pleasure is all mine. I think it would also help Korra as well if you are able to attend as well." The Chief replied, giving the same fake smile on as well.

"Why is that?" The orange haired swordsman replied to the request.

"She struggles a little bit in the spiritual side of being the Avatar and I'm going to be teaching all I know about spirits but it would help if she would have somebody closer to her age to teach her some stuff as well."Unalaq told Ichigo his reasoning. Ichigo looked back at him, again deep in thought.

**_"Partner, personally I don't think you should consider this as I'm seriously thinking of kicking his butt right now."_ **The warped voice replied back in his head.

_"No, Zangetsu, we need to be stealthy, we need to see what his plan is then we can kick his butt all we want. We won't get any information if we beat him right now."_ Ichigo replied back to the voice.

"Sure why not? Maybe I can teach the water princess here a thing or two." Ichigo accepted while creating a nickname for the avatar.

"What did you call me?" Korra asked, clearly annoyed with her nickname.

"You heard me, water princess." The swordsman told her nickname again, just to irritate her.

"WELL AT LEAST I'M NOT A STRAWBERRY!" Korra shouted, irritated from Ichigo's teasing and gave him a nickname as well.

"I'M NOT A STRAWBERRY! MY NAME MEANS ONE WHO PROTECTS!" Ichigo retaliated, pointing out the only flaw that her nickname had. The whole time that those two were arguing, they were butting heads with annoyed looking faces and making some growling noises. Completely, forgetting about the Chief until he cleared his throat that made them stop and calm down.

"You're early, Korra." Her uncle snapped his attention towards his niece.

"What can I say? I'm pumped up to learn that Unalaq spirit fighting." The avatar gave reasoning to her arrival.

"I'm not here to teach you to fight spirits, I'm here to help you begin your spiritual training. We're going to one of the most remote places in the world, the long neglected spiritual center of your tribe, the South Pole." Her uncle placed a hand on her shoulder. Ichigo knew what laid at the South Pole; he knew it couldn't be coincidence that her uncle was going to start Korra's spiritual training there.

"You're going to train me at the South Pole?" The avatar asked. Before her uncle could answer, the swordsman interrupted him.

"Sorry for interrupting but what kind of training are you going to do at the South Pole?" Ichigo asked.

"We will do more than just train. By neglecting the spirits, the people of the South have brought darkness upon themselves, and now it threatens to destroy our tribe. We must set things right. The Southern Water Tribe depends on the avatar." Unalaq said as he avoided the question entirely.

"Hey wait you didn't ans-" Ichigo was interrupted.

"A dangerous trip to the South Pole? Count me in!" Korra excitedly interrupted. Ichigo glared at her again for interrupting him. Before Ichigo can get the question out again, Unalaq decided to speak up.

"Then it's settled. We are going to the South Pole." The Chief announced the plan. The swordsman was in complete shock, he knew Unalaq was going to make Korra do something at the South Pole and if it was what he thinks it was then he needs to stop her.

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><p>They were packing up for the trip. Korra's boyfriend, Mako decided to join the journey as did his brother, Mako's brother and Unalaq's twins, Eska and Desna. Ichigo got introduced to them, except for Mako's brother as he was running late. Mako was packing things on to Naga just to make sure his girlfriend has everything for the trip. Ichigo didn't take any sort of transportation, just a cape, pair of googles and sleeping bag, which was strapped on top of his sword, as the trip would be overnight. He was waiting for everybody else to get ready; he was leaning on a tall rock when Korra approached him.<p>

"Why didn't you get some transportation?" Korra asked.

"It would be easier for me to walk and also faster for me to respond if we get attacked by anything, especially dark spirits." The swordsman justified his reasoning. Korra looked at him like he grew a second head. "Look, I did wander around the South Pole a bit so I know how bad it can get. I'm perfectly fine. Why do you care anyways? Last time I checked you have a boyfriend that you should be more worried about." Ichigo replied in a harsh tone, not wanting anybody to worry about him.

"FINE THEN IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SOMEONE WORRY ABOUT YOU THEN BE IT!" The water tribe girl shouted as she bent some of the snow around her into ice in a fit of frustration. She stormed off towards everybody else, leaving Ichigo alone where he was. A distant engine sound came closer, the swordsman turned to see what was the cause of the noise and saw a man riding a snowmobile. The driver stopped the snowmobile and got off. He recognizes their visitor as one the people from last night's fight. Ichigo got a closer look at the man; he was tall, buff version of Unalaq, which made him wonder if they could be related somehow. The man was wearing blue fur-lined hooded parka with a design on the chest, dark beige gloves, dark blue pants and some moccasin boots. He had dark brownish hair; some of it was tied up in a wolf's tail, as well as a goatee of the same color. The rest of his hair was shoulder length. He has the same bright blue eyes as most people from the southern water tribe have. The Chief notices the man and scowls before approaching him.

"Tonraq, what do you want?" Unalaq addressed the man.

"I heard that you're taking Korra to the South Pole." The man known as Tonraq said as he crosses his arms. "I'm coming."

"Absolutely not. You're a distraction to Korra and a hindrance to what needs to be done." The Chief angrily rejected the man's claim.

"I think the more the merrier if we are going against dark spirits." Ichigo decided to interrupt the feud before it escalated. Both men were looking at him; Tonraq had a look of confusion as to who was this man then remembered him from last night. The burly man turned towards the orange haired teen and gave a polite bow.

"Thank you for saving my daughter last night." The water tribe man thanked the swordsman.

"Uhhh Thanks, I mean you're welcome but who is you're daughter, the only one I saved was the avat…" Ichigo stopped as the realization hit him square in the head.

"Yeah he is my father." Korra came up with Naga and Mako sitting behind her. "Dad, what are you doing here?"

"I'm going with you to the South Pole." Tonraq reiterated his reason.

"No he isn't." Unalaq repeated.

"My daughter is not going without me! She needs someone to look after her." The water tribe man replied.

"Why do you always think you know what's best for me?" Korra asked, deciding to get into the argument.

"Because he's misguided. The sad truth is, its men like your father who has put the Spirit World out of balance. He's ignored my warnings in the past and hasn't learned since." The Chief replied.

"What happened in the past?" The avatar questioned.

"It doesn't matter. What matters is the Everstorm." Her father ignored her.

"The Everstorm?" The avatar's boyfriend got into the conversation.

"It's a massive blizzard that's battered the South Pole for decades." Ichigo choose to enter the conversation once again. Everybody looked at him, like how could he possibly know that, he sighed.

"Look I traveled a bit and picked up a bit of info on some stuff, let's just leave it at that." Ichigo explained his knowledge.

"I'm going unless you think you can stop me, brother?" Tonraq challenged his brother. The two water tribe men stared until a loud noise was apparent once again. Ichigo looked at the source and found a young man driving a snowmobile. By his eye color, the swordsman probably guessed that he was from the earth kingdom.

"He kind of looks like Mako." The swordsman thought to himself.

"GUYS! HEY, WAIT FOR ME!" The young man shouted. He zooms in closer to the group. The man was wearing a weird snowsuit. He got closer to the group and slowed down. "Check it out, I'm traveling in style!" As he said that, the man accidently turned the throttle, which made the vehicle jerk forward.

"Sorry still getting used that throttle." He quickly apologized.

"Uh, where'd you get the ride, bro?" Mako asked his brother.

"Varrick; he's awesome! He also gave me this fancy snowsuit! It's inflatable; with an internal heater, emergency beacon, and food ration pouches! I mean, if I get lost, I can survive in this thing for like, like a month!" The brother told, as he reached into his snowsuit. "Who wants some freeze dried cucumberquats? Nobody?... Did I interrupt a conversation?" A fire ferret popped out of his suit and started to eat the frozen cucumberquats.

"No the conversation is over." Korra strongly ended the conversation, "Dad, come if you want, just don't interfere with my training." She demanded and rode away from the group.

"Ok I have one more question, why is the guy from last night here with us?" The brother asked the obvious question of the day.

"Does anybody remember my name? Come on I said it last night for a reason." Ichigo sarcastically said.

"Sorry about that, Bolin is a little bit bad with names." The policeman said.

"It's fine, I was just joking." Ichigo replied, he then turned to the brother, "The name is Ichigo Kurosaki. I'm a firebender and apparently the avatar's second spiritual guide." The swordsman extended his hand.

"WOW THAT IS SO COOL!" Bolin shouted, once he calmed down, he shook Ichigo's hand. "My name is Bolin. I'm a probender and an earthbender." The fire ferret popped once again and started to sniff, the orange haired teen's hand. "Oh this is Pabu, he is fire ferret." Bolin gestured to his small fury friend.

"Pleased to meet both of you." The swordsman replied. From the moment when they shook hands he knew Bolin was going to be a good friend.

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><p>Later that night, Ichigo was walking with rest of the group; he looked around and saw Mako teasing his younger brother about Bolin's girlfriend and her brother sitting in the sidecar of his snowmobile.<p>

"GO AWAY, MAKO!" The earthbender brother shouted.

The swordsman tried to turn his focus somewhere else but then Tonraq interrupted. He rode his snowmobile towards him.

"I heard your Korra's second spiritual guide." The avatar's father questioned.

"Sort of." Ichigo replied. They both were in an awkward silence until the teen asked.

"Don't you think that you're a little too protective of Korra? I mean she is the avatar I think she can protect herself." The swordsman asked Tonraq.

"I had my family torn away from me, because of my foolishness once, I don't want that to happen again." The water tribe man replied, looking like it's a distant memory.

"Yeah I get you about families being town away. My mom was killed when I was 9 and then my father and two sisters were killed, when I was 15 because I wasn't strong enough to protect them." Ichigo empathized with the Avatar's father.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to bring personal matters into conversation." Tonraq quickly apologized.

"It's fine, it happened a while ago, but it seems that the more you try to protect her the more she is pushing herself away from you. Anyways, you still have your brother, that is got to count for something?" The teen asked.

"My brother and I have a complicated relationship as you can tell but I wouldn't do anything to hurt him." The father replied.

"Well I could tell that is sensitive subject so I'm not going to pry anymore. But I think you should be less protective of Korra. She needs to make her own mistakes and also to make her own path, as well." Kurosaki told with wisdom beyond his years.

"She may need to find her own way as the avatar but she will still need her father." Tonraq affirmed his decision.

"Wow you are very determined but I don't mean her path as the avatar, I mean her path as her very own person. Only she can make it, nobody else can, trust me I have some experience in that." Ichigo once again argued in wisdom past his years.

"I will take it in consideration. Thank you for the talk, Ichigo." Tonraq thanked.

"You're welcome and it's no problem." The swordsman replied. The father looked at his daughter's second spirit guide with one of understanding and compassion, and then pulled away from the teen.

Ichigo noticed that Korra was talking to her uncle, he decided to tune into their conversation.

"At the South Pole, there is a portal that connects our world to the Spirit World, but it has long been closed." The chief explained their purpose of reaching the South Pole.

"And that's why the evil spirits are attacking?" The avatar asked, clearly confused of this whole ordeal.

"There are no evil spirits, there is light and dark in them all. But when they're unbalanced, the darkness takes over. If you can open the portal in time, balance will be restored." The thunder and lighting from the Everstorm can be heard and seen.

"What do you mean... in time?" Korra questioned her uncle with his proposition.

"There's a reason the Glacier Spirits Festival ends on the winter solstice. That's when the Spirit World and the physical world are close together. Only then can the Avatar open the portal." The Chief explained.

"The winter solstice is tomorrow." His niece stated the date.

"Exactly, and we can't afford to wait another year." Unalaq expressed the urgency of the situation.

Ichigo looked at the pair and decided it would be better to talk to Korra alone so he doesn't alert her uncle.

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><p>Ichigo was situated a little bit far away from the camp the others had made. Partly because he needed to be calm in order to meditate. The other part was because he didn't want people interrupting him when he was performing Jinzen. He stabbed his sword in the ground in front of him and sat down cross-legged. He closed his eyes and started to breath slowly. The swordsman heard the snow crunch from behind him and immediately called his uninvited guest over.<p>

"I can already hear you, why don't you just come over, Korra?" Ichigo addressed the Avatar.

"How did you know it was me?" Korra came out of her hiding spot.

"I just have a knack for it" He told her a part truth. Truth he sensed her avatar spirit getting closer. "Anyways why are you here?" He continued. She sat beside him with her knees in front of her face.

"I just need some space from my father and just be with somebody who isn't trying to protect me all the time." The avatar said.

"Wow harsh it's not like I don't want to protect you. What happened?" Ichigo said and asked for the source of tension between the father and daughter. Korra told him about how her father was once a general of the Northern Water Tribe and the next Chief but was banished because he destroyed a sacred spirit forest. What got on Korra's nerves was that he didn't tell her any of it until now.

"Oh wow that means you really are a water princess" Ichigo was cracking up in laughter, seeing that he hit the nail on the head with his nickname for the avatar. Korra tossed a rock at his head and hit him square on the forehead.

Rubbing his injury, Ichigo looked over at her and remembered a time when he was in the spirit world. Some spirits came back angry and some came back in peace but he heard something that was frightening.

"The plan was success, now that prince will be banished and we can finally be free." A dark spirit said to his colleague.

"Shut up! Do you want the whole spirit world to know?" his colleague berated him.

"Sorry, just got so excited." The other one said almost jumping with excitement.

The swordsman's mind wandered back to the present and thought that this information should be better revealed later in time. Korra instead got a closer look at his sword. It looked like a giant meat cleaver with some white cloth wrapped around the tang, acting for the handle and the rest of it, which was acting for a sheath when it clinging to Ichigo's back, dangling in the wind. They sat in silence and Ichigo was about to start Jinzen but then the avatar interrupted him once again. An annoyed mark started to grow on his forehead.

"What are you doing?" Korra asked; as she thought it was weird, taking some time meditate in the tundra.

"I'm just meditating with Zangetsu." Ichigo replied casually like he was doing nothing special.

"Who is Zangetsu?" The avatar asked, confused, as there is nobody here except for them especially somebody named Zangetsu.

"My sword." The orange haired swordsman said and pointed to his sword. Korra just looked at him like he grew a second head again. Ichigo just broke out of his meditation and looked over at her.

"Look you have polar bear dog as your best friend and I have my sword as mine, okay?" The cape clad teen told her similarities between his relationship with his sword and Naga.

"Wow it's no wonder you are so distant, you only have a sword as your friend." Korra teased.

"Shut up" Ichigo turned his head again in embarrassment. After he calmed down, Ichigo continued. "Sorry for earlier, I kind of overreacted for what I said. It's just I don't want to be a burden on anybody also want to protect my friends." He said, putting some determination behind his voice.

"Wait so we are friends?" The avatar teased a bit. The swordsman turned into a shade red after hearing that. " But I don't need another person who is going to protect me and knows what's best for me." Korra clearly only heard the part about protecting others, she was about to get up when the swordsman grabbed her hand and pulled her back down. When he noticed that he was holding her hand, the swordsman blushed and retracted his hand. Ichigo then sighed, putting his palms on his knees and shaking his head from side to side. Korra looked at him again.

"You don't get it at all, water princess. Yeah I want to protect people but I also know some people are strong enough to protect themselves and the people they care about. I only come in when they need help. And about that "knowing what's best for you" deal, I don't. Only you can make your path in the world nobody else. I'm also feeling that it's your dad the one you were talking about, well sounds to me he is just doing his job as a parent. But I think he is a little over protective of you." Ichigo laid out his thoughts to the young avatar and agreeing with her about her dad.

"Yeah sorry for earlier, once I calmed down a bit, I realized that I was a overreacting a bit." Korra admitted.

"A bit maybe exaggerating much." The swordsman told her. Korra bent some earth at him, which hit square on his forehead again. Ichigo grunted from the impact that made the avatar chuckle a bit.

"He is lying." The swordsman decided to interrupt their little dispute.

"Who is?" The avatar responded.

"Your uncle," Ichigo accused, "he says that opening the portal will bring balance but it won't it will bring the opposite."

"Oh great now you're skeptical about my uncle as well." Korra replied. "Let me guess you're about to say that you don't want me to open the portal."

"Well no just giving you heads up. I'm supposed to be your guide in with dealing in spirits, I will guide and teach you what I know about them. The only person who decides what you should do in life is only yourself. " The swordsman said, expressing his wisdom, while rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

"I trust you to make the right decision when the time comes." Ichigo confidently expressed his trust towards the avatar.

"Thanks, Strawberry." Korra said with a slight chuckle between her lips.

"Watch it, Water Princess, I might trust you with decisions. I don't approve of the nickname you gave your spiritual guide." The Strawberry slightly annoyed about his nickname still. The avatar looked at him and then chucked another rock at him.

"Ha that same tricks won't work twice." He said while dodging the rock, Korra just bent another rock in the way and hit Ichigo straight in the face. She broke into laughter and Ichigo rubbed the area where the rock hit. He then joined in the laughter.

Mako was looking over at them from the campground. He looked at Korra, who now seems much calmer and happier then when she left. The firebender then took a look at the swordsman, who also had a smile on his face. He couldn't help feel a little bit jealous that he couldn't help his girlfriend or make her smile but some total stranger could. Bolin interrupted his thought when he put an arm his brother's shoulders.

"It's alright bro, Korra just needs blow off some steam." The earthbender said, completely ignoring the jealous look his brother was giving to the swordsman.

"Yeah maybe your right." The firebender saying to reaffirm himself that they still have their relationship. After a while Korra came back alone and everybody went to sleep.

* * *

><p>The morning came and everybody was packing up his or her sleeping gear. The swordsman was already because he only had to carry his sword and a sleeping pack. He walked towards Unalaq.<p>

"I'll scout ahead if there are any dark spirits ahead." Ichigo told the Chief.

"I don't think that is a good idea. We shouldn't be separated while getting close to the South Pole." He retorted.

"Don't forget about the Everstorm, brother." Tonraq said with a little despise towards his brother.

"Yes that as well." Unalaq corrected himself.

"I can go ahead and get the dark spirits attention and drive them away from you. Also the ones I do distract, I could also purify, so effectively cutting down some of the attackers." The swordsman justified his reason. He then proceeded to do what he said.

"Wait won't you need back up?" The avatar decided to join in before the conversation is over.

"Yeah but this is reconnaissance mission at the most, we need to be stealthy. Considering I'm the only one here who doesn't have a snowmobile, artic camel, or their polar bear dog/ best friend, I think I would be the most stealthiest." Ichigo explained.

"Yeah but…" Korra worried,

"Why am I so worried about Ichigo?" The avatar thought to herself.

"I'll find you guys in a couple of hours." Ichigo told the group and proceeded to take his leave.

* * *

><p>A couple of hours and dark spirits later, Ichigo was running towards the group.<p>

**"Yo, Ichigo, that wasn't very smooth of you." **Zangetsu appeared in his mind again.

"Oh you've appeared again." Ichigo replied to the voice in his head.

**"You know back there before you left." **The voice both ignored his comment and continued, **"The avatar really likes you."**

That made the swordsman blush slightly and turn his head away even though he wasn't looking at anything.

"Wh…What are you talking about?" The orange haired teen stammered, "There is no way that she likes me, she has a boyfriend."

**"I can tell you like her too." **Zangetsu continued his teasing,** "Remember I'm in your head."**

" I don't like her, anyways her emotions could be just from him." Ichigo denied his emotions and gave a scapegoat to the emotions, "Remember he was my best friend, after all." He reminded the voice back.

**"Eh…Whatever King, I'm just saying there is tension between the two of you whether be friendly or romantically, I'm just pointing it out." **The voice replied.

"That's right there is nothin-Wait what did you say?" Kurosaki finally processed what Zangetsu just said. "There is nothing romantic going on between us." The swordsman continued his denial. He stopped running to deal with this before anything.

**"It's not what I see…Wait partner I sense some dark spirits." **The voice warned Ichigo. **"They're going after that group and your girlfriend."**

"She is not my girlfriend!" Ichigo argued back before calming down and felt the energies of the dark spirits. "Yeah I sense them too." He said before he took off towards the group.

* * *

><p>Korra and Mako fighting spirits with firebending. She somersaults out of the way and employs Unalaq's purifying move on one of the spirits. The spirit stops in a daze, but it manages to fight it, and pins the water tribe girl down.<p>

"KORRA!" Her boyfriend shouted as he tried to fight his way to her

The spirit opens its mouth to reveal many rows of teeth. The avatar struggle to break free but it's useless, as the spirit doesn't budge an inch. Before it can continue its attack, a voice is heard through the battle.

"WHY ARE YOU GUYS ALWAYS IN TROUBLE WHEN I FIND YOU?" The cape clad swordsman shouted as he appeared upon one of the mountains.

The dark spirit looked up, saw the teen and started to attack him but Ichigo just jumped off the mountain, swinging his giant meat cleaver forward towards a spirit's face. It contacted, he sliced it down and the dark spirit's skin seemed to peel off revealing the light spirit from within. Korra was distracted and another dark spirit took the opportunity to attack but she was faster as she put some distance between it and tried to make the spirit tranquil again. She almost done it but the spirit snapped out of it and rammed into her. It had a fist raised and was going to squish her if a sword didn't appear out the side of its chest purifying it. Ichigo had thrown his sword to purify the spirit, the cloth used to wrap it, was acting like a rope to connect Ichigo to his sword. Another dark spirit pounced towards Ichigo.

"Ichigo look out!" The avatar warned the swordsman. The carrot top grabbed the cloth and pulled his sword back into his hands.

"Oh no you don't." Ichigo said while charging his firebending into his sword.

"GETSUGA TENSHO!"

The swordsman called out as he swung his sword towards the dark spirit and an arch of blue flames followed its path and knocked the spirit back onto the ground. It was about to get up but then water surrounded it and started to glow gold. The cape clad carrot top turned to see Unalaq use his waterbending to calm the spirit down again. Soon the spirit turned gold as well left off peacefully.

"Thanks." Ichigo thanked the Water Tribe Chief while sheathing his sword. He panted a little bit and broke a sweat.

"Wow did not have a work out like that in a long time." The swordsman said, letting pants of air.

"I should be the one thank you for showing up in time. I don't know what would happen to us if you didn't" The Avatar's Uncle replied.

"Is everybody ok?" The black haired firebender asked to all whom as around. Everybody nodded or gave sign that they were ok.

"Wow how did your sword purify the spirit?" Korra asked as the others grouped around him.

"Basically the same way your uncle does it with his waterbending, by putting some of my reiatsu into it." Ichigo finally gave an answer to the question that Korra was eager to find out, and then it confused her again.

"Reiatsu?" Korra asked and turned her head to the side, clearly confused.

"Look I'll teach you about it when we get the time. By the way, where is Bolin?" The swordsman asked the group. As if on cue, the earthbender was screaming at the top of his lungs when his snowmobile was hurtling from the group but then the twins pulled him from the machine, which crashed into a cliff and and Eska drop Bolin onto the snow, causing his snowsuit to inflate, revealing the fire ferret, Pabu.

"I'm a raft." The young eathbender said while sliding down a mountain while the twins bent some ice around their feet and made some ice skies as they slide down the slope as well, Mako stopped his younger brother.

"Uhhh, can someone please deflate me?" Bolin asked. Eska bends some ice spears from the ground and deflates him. "Thanks"

"Oh great. There goes our equipment. What are we suppose to do now?" The firebending brother stated the situation.

"The only to do is turn back." Tonraq replied.

"No the solstice is tonight. And we're so close." His brother replied.

"This mission is too dangerous. We're leaving." The former prince replied.

"No, dad you're leaving." Korra told her dad sternly.

* * *

><p>Tonraq was packing up his stuff, getting ready to leave. He, Ichigo and Mako were standing besides the father's snowmobile.<p>

"Don't worry sir, I'll keep an eye on Korra for you." Mako said confidently.

" And I promise to make sure everybody comes back in one piece." Ichigo continued.

"Thank you both." Tonraq thanked the two young men. He shook both their hands. Korra had an irritated looked on her face when her father left and Mako rode Naga with her. Ichigo still decided on walking so that's what he did when they resumed their journey. It was a few minutes after when Korra decided to break the silence that had befallen on the trio.

"So, what exactly were you guys and my dad talking about?" Korra asked Mako. Ichigo was walking next to Naga at the time so he heard the question as well.

"Nothing, he was just worried about you, that's all." The policeman replied.

"Y'know, sometimes I wonder whose side you guys are on." The Avatar, still iritated, said to the two firebenders.

"Like I said Water Princess, I'm not on anybody's side. My job is simply to guide you in dealing with spirits, that's all. If I able to help in any way then I will help. You just got to trust us." The orange haired firebender replied.

"He is right, Korra. There aren't any sides. We all just want to help however we can. You have to trust that we're here for you." Mako gave his answer and shot a the swordsman a glare.

_"What's his problem?" _Ichigo mentally asked.

"We've arrived." Unalaq said as they where approaching the South Pole. The group looked at the sight before them. It was forest but instead of the trees being green they where frozen.

"Ok then I'm going with you." Ichigo argued.

"Only Korra can do this alone." Unalaq rejected his demand.

"Ichigo, I can do this alone. Why don't you believe in me, like my uncle does?" Korra asks in anger.

"This is exactly why I got my dad to leave." The thought appeared in the avatar's head.

"I already said that I trust you make the right decision. I just want to make sure that whatever you that do, you do it properly." Ichigo said. Korra stared at him, thinking what he is going to say. "I'm not going to say that is best for you if you feel like you need to do this then that's fine."

"Thanks, Ichigo." Korra thanked the swordsman. "But I need to do this alo-"

"I'm also not an idiot; you will be outnumbered in there so that's why you would probably need some backup." Ichigo interrupted her and put a hand on her shoulder. "I told you that only you can make your own path in the world. Well the path I choose is to help you become stronger." The swordsman finished with his little speech. The thought about the night before about what he said, "How only you can make your path in the world nobody else". She silently nodded and accepted. He then walked up to Unalaq and spoke.

"Yeah she is the only who can open the portal but don't you think she needs back up, we are at the dark spirits' base after all." Ichigo said. Mako seemed to consider this and almost volunteer, as well, to help his girlfriend.

"I think I should be the one to go since I know a lot about spirits than most people. Unless you want to go, Unalaq?" Ichigo didn't mean it as a challenge but it certainly came out that way. The Chief locked the teen at a staring contest. Neither of them seemed to be backing down.

"This kid certainly acts like my brother. It doesn't seem he is backing down from this request." The Chief thought to himself.

"No I don't think that would be necessary. I will stay out here to provide back up if we get attacked by the dark spirits." The Chief opted out of the challenge.

"I want to go as well." Mako offered, hoping to be of help to his girlfriend. The swordsman looked at other firebender and noticed some determination mixed with jealously in his eyes. This got Ichigo thinking what was he jealous about? The orange haired teen stared back at Mako with a "what did I do look?" There was an eerie silence in the air and everybody just seemed to witness the stare down between the two.

_**"Wow I was wrong, I think he is the one that likes you, Ichigo." **_The warped voice appeared in Ichigo's head again. This caused the swordsman to instantly blush in embarrassment and turn his head to the side to address the voice mentally.

"No you idiot, he has girlfriend! Plus I know I'm not into guys and I think he isn't either." The orange haired firebender rejected the statement that the warped voice threw at him. The other firebender just looked at Ichigo confused of what has just happened.

"Ok weird, why did he just break the stare down like that?" The bending brother thought

Ichigo dismissed the voice again. He then sighed and addressed Mako.

"You're a good firebender, no doubt, but you know diddly squat about spirits. I think it's better if you stay out here, just in case the dark spirits attack." The firebending swordsman suggested.

"Wait, why can't I…" The policeman was interrupted when Korra pulled him into a hug. Mako blushed a bit and returned the hug. After what seemed to them like an eternity, Korra pulled away from Mako.

"Don't worry I know I can take care of myself. I also have Strawberry over there to help as well. Plus it would be better if you stayed out here. I don't want anything to happen to you." The avatar gestured towards the cape-clad swordsman, whom in turn made an annoyed face once he heard his nickname.

Ichigo and Korra separated from the group and trudged deeper inside the forest, through a cave going in the roots of the spirit trees, looking for the portal. Korra looking more and more scarred the farther they went in. The orange haired teen sensed that her spiritual power is fluctuating .The swordsman decided to end the pregnant silence between them.

"Calm down, Korra. The calmer you are the less likely that the dark spirits are going to attack." Ichigo calmly reminded the Avatar that he was still with her. Korra took a deep breath and calmed down as well as her spirit. "Good now let's find the portal." The swordsman continued.

"I thought that you didn't want me to open it." The water tribe girl said.

"No I don't but in the end it is your decision, I'm just telling it isn't the best idea to open it." Ichigo corrected her. They continued walking in the forest.

"Then why do you think it is a bad idea or that my uncle is lying to me?" Korra asked

"Look your uncle seems to me like he isn't one to do stuff out of the goodness of his heart if there is any, without anything in return." The swordsman took a deep sigh when he saw that Korra was giving him a look of disapproval.

"Everything he has told me about till now has been the truth." The avatar started to argue.

"I know but has he told you what would happen if both portals would open? Even if we open the portal here, we still need to open the northern portal as well."

"Unalaq told me that the reason that there were northern lights was because the North Tribe has spiritual harmony but the South doesn't. That's why the spirits are attacking. Opening the portal " The water tribe girl relayed the information that her uncle gave her.

"But ask yourself, why are the dark spirits attacking the south only? There aren't any other reports about them attacking anywhere else." The black clad voiced his reasons.

While they were busy arguing, a snake-like dark spirit nears Korra and screeches, causing towards them to turn around. In the distance, two dark spirits charge toward Ichigo, causing him to unsheathe his sword. She turns and starts to run from them, but they manage to catch her and begin to wrap themselves around her body and legs. Ichigo comes and slices some of the spirits holding the avatar, freeing her a bit. Another spirit attempts to attack the avatar, but she defends herself with a blast of fire, and frees herself from the spirit wrapped around her with airbending. The spirits charge back at them, but they run in one of the caverns and Korra bends some of the ice from the forest into a wall that stops them. They both breathe in to calm themselves after that close call. The avatar and the swordsman then look at each other, Korra still not convinced that Unalaq is lying to her. Ichigo decides to drop it and turns away for the newly formed wall. The water tribe follows suit and then stops as she gazes to where they have ended up. The two find themselves in a large cave, a glowing dome positioned in the center.

"This is it, the Southern Portal." Ichigo mumbled in disbelief.

"The spirit portal. Amazing." Korra said as she approached the portal.

* * *

><p>In a room at the Southern Air Temple where there are three young airbenders who are asleep. One of them awakens and walks through the hall of statues in a daze. She looked to be the eldest with brown hair, in a bun. She breaks free from her daze in shock and surprise, finding herself in front of a statue of an unknown Avatar. Behind it, there was another statue, it seemed attached to the first one. She didn't think it wasn't another avatar, but something to do with this one. The first statue looked human-like with some sort of giant kite around it. The other one looked humanoid at first but then getting a closer look it had hole in the middle of its chest, claws at the end of its fingers and toes, a lengthy black sword, a skeletal face with horns protruding the side of its head, and what seemed to be hair growing out of the back of the skull.<p>

"Woah, what Avatar is this and who is the other statue?" The young airbender questioned herself.

* * *

><p>Korra and Ichigo are standing over the portal in the South Pole. Both of them are captivated by the glow that they can't stop staring at it.<p>

"**_Ichigo, his presence is strong here._**" Zangetsu's voice replied in his head. Ichigo snaps out of it when he hears the voice.

"A light in the dark." The avatar said still shocked about the portal. She then snaps out of it as well and gets into a stance. Korra punches the ice above the portal with some airbending but it doesn't do anything. She then tries the same with firebending but it gives the same result.

"Why isn't working?" The water tribe girl asked with frustration.

"Why don't you try to waterbend the ice away?" Ichigo answered.

"I guess I could try that." The avatar accepted his suggestion and readied herself in a waterbending stance. She tried to bend the ice away but she still got the same results as her firebending and airbending.

"Come on portal open." Korra said as she striked the ice again and again with airbending.

"If it didn't work the first time, why do you think it will work the second time?" Her second spiritual guide questioned her methods.

"Well why don't help me then?" The avatar angrily questioned him.

"I don't how to open it." Ichigo responded, a little to fast, hopefully she doesn't notice.

At that moment, dark spirits crashed through the ceiling of the cavern. Three massive yeti-like spirits turned to face the swordsman, while more of those serpent spirits charge towards the avatar. They start entangling themselves around her. Korra is scarred when more wrap themselves around her and start pulling her towards the ceiling as she tries to firebending at the portal some more.

"KORRA!" Ichigo shouted when he saw the serpent like dark spirits wrap around her. While he was distracted, the brute like dark spirits he was facing knocked him to the other side cavern. The avatar has reaching for the portal while being dragged by dark spirits, desperately reaching at the portal. Once they thought that the swordsman was out of the way, the other dark spirits started to converge on Korra. They were about to attack her.

"GETSUGA TENSHO"

And suddenly a gigantic blast of blue flame struck the spirits. Ichigo reappeared from the pile of ice and leaped forward to purify some of the spirits. He got through 2 when the third was too fast and caught him off guard and was going to attack him until a bright orange light shone through and purified the spirits with them. The swordsman looked over to where Korra was and saw that she was in the Avatar State. Some cracks were forming on the ground, which created a blast, and knocked the avatar, Ichigo caught her and struck his sword to anchor them. They were force to close their eyes when a green beam light rises from the portal to the sky. It dispels the Everstorm and causes the Southern Lights appear in the sky. The two open their eyes and look at the sky, seeing the lights dancing in the sky.

"The lights dancing in the sky."Korra said while being awestruck.

"They are incredible." Ichigo said as well. He knew the consequences of opening the portal so close to Harmonic Convergence but couldn't help marvel at the sight.

**"_Yo Ichigo, I can sense his presence._" **The voice reminded him, **"_Also my dark presence seemed to have gotten stronger when the Avatar opened the portal. Be careful Ichigo, it will be harder to mask me now_."**

Ichigo now wondered what could he do to stop Harmonic Convergence from happening.

* * *

><p>Back outside of the forest, the group was staring at the light that emerged from the portal.<p>

"I can't believe it." Mako whispered.

"It's beautiful." Bolin said while rubbing his eyes.

Unalaq just smiled towards the light but if you looked closer then you would see that smile had just a subtle hint of evil in it.

* * *

><p>Tonraq was speeding away from the spirit forest and trying to get back to his village. He stops his snowmobile and looks back at the lights. He smiled proudly when looking at the dancing lights.<p>

"She did it." He said, very proud that his daughter accomplished her task.

* * *

><p>Back at the southern Air Temple, the young airbender was looking at the now glowing statues in front of her. The statue of the unknown avatar glowing in a bright gold light and the monstrous one glowing an eerie black red. It looked like black flames that were consuming the statue.<p>

"What is happening?" Jinora questioned, looking at the statues.

* * *

><p>Korra and Ichigo were walking out of the spirit forest when Bolin was running towards them, more specifically to Korra.<p>

"Hey, Ichigo and Korra, you're back." Bolin said to the pair.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious." The swordsman replied. Bolin ignored him and turn towards to the group still standing there.

"HEY KORRA AND ICHIGO ARE BACK!" The pro-bender shouted to the group. He hugs Korra, but an ice wall separates them and brings Bolin back to face Eska.

"Why are you initiating physical contact with another woman?" Eska asked her "boyfriend".

The earthbender just laughs nervously until the waterbender melts the wall. The avatar turned towards the swordsman.

"Thanks for helping me in there. If you weren't there, I don't think I would be alive right now." The water tribe teen thanked him.

"Well it's a good thing that I was there then. But there is really no need to thank me though if you didn't open the portal when you did then I would've been toast." Ichigo replied.

"Well then it's a good thing, I was there then." The avatar repeated his words. She then turned towards the Chief.

"Everything you said was true." She told her uncle. Ichigo glared at Unalaq, knowing full well why he wanted Korra to open the southern portal. Whether the Chief saw it or not, he didn't acknowledge it.

"Avatar Korra, you have taken the first step in bringing balance back to the South, and soon the whole world." He complimented his niece.

"You never cease to amaze me." Mako spoke up to his girlfriend.

"Thanks. By the way, I'm really sorry for being a total pain. Things were really stressful and pretty confusing. It's hard being the Avatar." Korra apologized for her behavior towards him the past couple of days.

"It's harder being the Avatar's boyfriend." He jokingly says to her while nudging her. They pull into another hug. While Korra couldn't see, the firebender glares at the swordsman, silently tells him to not get any ideas. Ichigo looks back at him, giving him another "I have no idea what you are talking about" look.

* * *

><p>The journey back to the Southern Water was much easier since the dark spirits in the area were purified and the Everstorm dissipated because of the portal being open. They got back there in half a day. The groups looked out on the harbour and were shocked. They see a number of large battleships and some Northern Water Tribe troops marching in. Ichigo looks out to the sea where there are more battleships approaching the Southern Water Tribe. The swordsman's rage started to boil, seeing thru The Chief's plan. He quickly put some control on it before he loses control.<p>

"What are all your Northern troops doing here?" Korra asked her uncle after a long silence.

"What do you think he is doing? He is invading the southern tribe." The orange haired teen expressed his controlled rage

"Ichigo, give him a moment to explain himself." The avatar tried to be the voice of reason in this.

"Opening the spirit portal was only the first step in getting the Southern Water Tribe back on its righteous path. There's more difficult work to be done before our two tribes are truly united." Unalaq explained his intentions.

"YEAH RIGHT!" Ichigo glared and pointed at him. "You don't care about the unification about the two tribes, you only care about power." The swordsman gave him a glare that could burn. He knew what was Unalaq was after he just didn't know how bad until it was too late. He calmed down a bit and started to walk away from the group. Korra immediately jumped off of Naga and tried to catch up to him.

"Where are you going?" The avatar questioned the swordsman.

"I'm leaving, your uncle is going too far with this. I need to tell my friend about his plans." Ichigo replied.

"But what about my training?" Korra reminded him about the promise of training her. The orange haired teen stopped then sighed and turned to face her.

"Your uncle is up to something and I know you don't see it now but trust when I say that he is up to no good. Just promise me that you won't trust everything your Uncle says. As for my friend, I guess I'll have to wait until morning to tell him." The swordsman told her.

"It's seems like you know what my uncle is up to, why don't you tell me?" The avatar questioned him.

* * *

><p><em>"Ichigo promise me that when the next Harmonic Convergence comes, you will help my current reincarnation deal with Vaatu, should he escape from his prison." A old raspy voice replayed in his mind.<em>

_"Well why don't I just tell them about it then?" Ichigo's voice was heard._

_"It's not going to be that easy. They won't believe you if they didn't see it for themselves. Let me deal with that part though. But before you need to lead me, guide me away from accidentally freeing Vaatu and also you need to be patience with me cause I might not remember anything of this or you and your powers(1). Also should I not stop him then I need you to do everything in your power to stop him, my friend" The raspy voice demanded._

_"I promise with my very life." The swordsman replied._

_"But for now I need you to take Raava and guide her to my next reicarnation." The old raspy voice told the black clad person._

_"What I am a Spirit Reaper then? Wait that doesn't sound right. How about a Soul Reaper then?" Ichigo began naming his profession of guiding the spirit of light to the avatar's next reincarnation._

_"That doesn't sound too bad." The old avatar responded to the Soul Reaper name, "Promise me Ichigo that you won't tell my reincarnation for the next Harmonic Convergence until I explain to them."_

_"Yeah that's a promise, Avatar Wan." The way Ichigo promised sounded like they were very close friends. The avatar proceeded to talk to the light spirit inside of him._

* * *

><p>The swordsman's mind snapped back to the present when Korra gave that confused look again.<p>

"I promised somebody that I wouldn't tell anybody about it until the time was right." The swordsman told the present day avatar. "But trust me when I say what your Uncle wants isn't peace between the two tribes."

"How can I trust you if you don't tell me what is happening or anything about your past?" The water tribe girl told him.

"Look I also promised you that I would teach you about reiatsu so I'm not going to leave permantely. Also, I'm not one to go back on my promises. About my past, I will tell you about it later." Ichigo said.

"Do you promise?" Korra said while making one of her famous pouts.

"Yeah I do." The swordsman promised. After the strawberry calmed down some more, they walked back to the group and everybody looked at the situation at hand. Ichigo looked over to Korra, who had a look of uncertainty. He then looked over to Unalaq, who had a slight smile on his face.

"Everything is going according to plan." The chief evil thought.

* * *

><p>A Soul Reaper is born in Chapter 2 of A Reaper Among Benders! Also if you haven't guessed the warped voice in Ichigo's head is Hollow IchigoZangetsu.

Anyways Chapter 2 is finally done. Thanks for being so patient, guys! With school and projects, I don't have that much time between to write that and once I'm done rough I send it to my friend who edits it. The reason why I do this is because I care more about quality of my stories and just need a fresh pair of eyes on the project. I already sent this to my friend so once she is done editing this I will update the chapter until then I will continue to work on chapter 3 (which I already started by the way).

Did anybody else see the Book 3 commercial from the Netherlands? It looks so beautiful! Hopefully Book 3 will air soon.

(1) That was taken from the first X-Men: Days of Future Past Trailer. Once I heard it, I wanted to use in this story so here it is.

What is Ichigo's connection to Avatar Wan or Rukia in that matter?

Chapter 3 of A Reaper Among Benders: Civil Wars and Revelations Part 1 will come out hopefully sooner than this chaper.

**PLEASE REVIEW**!


	3. Civil Wars and Revelations Part 1

Surprise! I finished this chapter just in time for the Book 3 finale.

Thank you for being so patient and encouraging me to continue this story. I wanted to have this done when Book 3 premiered but school and personal reasons came up so I couldn't work on it. I wanted to have the third chapter up when Book 3 premiered with 3 episodes but like I just said couldn't make the date.

(Hhhehheh see what I did there.)

Anyways without further ado here is the long awaited third chapter of A Reaper Among Benders!

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><p>Shiro Shinobi: Korra has reopened the Southern spirit portal and taken the first step to restoring balance between spirits and man. Meanwhile, tensions are high between Korra and her father after she discovered he was hiding a dark secret. Years ago, Tonraq was banished from the North. And now the Northern navy has landed on Southern shores. What other plans does Unalaq have for the Avatar? Also her second spiritual guide, Ichigo Kurosaki seems to be hiding his own secrets and agenda. What is he isn't telling the Avatar? What happened in his past that he doesn't want anybody to know? Stay tune and find out!<p>

Ichigo: Seriously, I think you guys should take him to hospital or something, this isn't normal.

Korra: We did but it doesn't seem anything is wrong with him. He just loves his job a lot. Now help me find a way out of here. Wherever here is.

Ichigo: Oh you can't get out of here until the writer's says it's okay to.

Korra: Wait what?

Ichigo: Well that's how it goe…

Shiro: Welcome back, folks! Now we begin our next chapter of our story.

Ichigo: Will you stop doing that?!

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><p><em><strong>"HOLLOW ICHIGOZANGETSU/ Ichigo with mask on"**_

_"Flashbacks/Thoughts"_

"Normal Speaking"

Legend of Korra and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon, Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino

BLEACH and all related characters belong to Tite Kubo

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><p>Ch 3. Civil Wars and Revelations Pt.1<p>

"This isn't good, Ichigo." A male's voice replied.

After the group came back from opening the southern portal, they saw that the Northern Tribe had invaded the Southern Tribe. Ichigo quickly blamed Unalaq and almost reported to his friend in the spirit world but Korra managed to delay that and calmed him down.

Now he is in the spirit world, talking to his friend. They were in a cave, sitting around a makeshift table, made of a giant rock. The Avatar's guide was sitting in front of his friend, who's face was blocked from the darkness of the cave.

"I know. The earlier that Korra knows the truth and being deceived by her uncle, the better. But we have to wait until Wan tells her." The Soul Reaper replied.

"Can't you just tell her?" The man questioned, like the voice in Ichigo's head seemed to ask a lot.

"We've been over this. First, I can't break my promise to Wan. Second, we just met, if I were to start talking to her about this and accusing her uncle, do you think she would believe me?" Ichigo retorted.

"Yeah I get it." The voice in the cave replied.

"Anyways I got to go. I've been here too long and got to keep an eye out for Unalaq. You stay here, keep an eye out for dark spirits and make sure the light spirits are safe." The young firebender said as he got up.

"Sure thing, Ichigo." The man said as got up as well.

"I'm counting on you to keep the Spirit World safe, Ginjo." Ichigo said as he walked towards the exit of the cave. As they proceeded to the exit, the light revealed the man's face. He had black hair that was greased back, electric blue eyes.

As soon as the orange-cropped teen reached the exit, he started to fade way.

"Don't worry I won't let you down." Ginjo said, giving the Soul Reaper a smile before he disappeared. When Ichigo disappeared though his genuine smile turned into an evil one.

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><p>The Soul Reaper came out of his meditation and saw Northern Water Tribe troops are marching in the Southern Tribe forcing people back into their homes. When Southern people refused to cooperate two waterbenders from the North, separated them with a wall of ice. Not only did the Northern troops were clearing the streets, they also formed giant ice walls around the docks to prevent ships from leaving and entering. Effectively cutting the Southern Tribe off from the outside world.<p>

Ichigo wasn't a very happy person at the moment as he was standing up from his visit to Spirit World. He joined the Avatar and her uncle on a balcony at the chieftains' palace in the South Pole.

"Hey Ichigo, how did your meeting go? Still wanted to go with you." The water tribe girl asked.

"It was fine. Just told my friend to keep an eye out from dark spirits. Also, you still need to learn to control your spiritual energy before you can enter the spirit world." Ichigo explained.

"Uncle, why did you bring your troops down from the North?" Korra asked the question that was on, the Avatar's and Ichigo's mind.

"Now that you've opened the Southern portal, we need to protect it from the people who would do the spirits harm." Unalaq calmly stated.

"I can pro…" The avatar said confidently.

"By what? Imprisoning everybody at the South Pole?" The swordsman interrupted her.

"Nothing of the sort. I'm just making sure nobody goes to harm the portal." The Chief said in a calmly matter.

"So basically, like a open air prison then. Yeah the Southern Water Tribe is definitely going to love this." Ichigo said, ending the argument.

"There is no point in arguing with him." The black clad teenager thought to himself.

**_"Be careful, Ichigo. Now that he knows that you are against him. He will probably try to get you out of the way, so that you can't influence Korra towards your side." _**Zangetsu warned him.

_"I keep telling you that I'm not trying to influence her, I'm just trying to tell her what I can without breaking my promise to Wan."_ Ichigo thought back to the voice. _"But you are right, I think he will make his move against us soon."_ With that thought, Ichigo's mind came back to the present situation. He raised his head to see that Korra was smiling and gazing towards her uncle.

"With both portals open, our tribes will be united again." She said with a big smile on her face.

"The world will be united again." Unalaq said with a smile, but Ichigo has seen a lot of fake smiles in his life to see that it was a fake one. The swordsman shot a glare at the Chief.

Ichigo walked towards the Avatar and put a hand on her shoulder. Korra tensed a bit when the swordsman clapsed her shoulder and was blushing a bit but turned her head so nobody would notice.

"I know that you need Korra for something important right now, but I'm going to need to teach her something before anything else." The swordsman calmly stated.

"Oh, where was that all that anger from before." The Chief said, calling out their recent discussion.

"I've decided it would be hard for Korra to learn anything about spirits if both of her spiritual guides are constantly arguing." The orange hair teen calmly decided.

"I appreciate your enthusiasm but I need the Avatar for more important matters." Unalaq stated.

"If you say that she got more powerful by opening the portal, then she needs to learn how to control that power before she tackles anything else or the dark spirits could find her and attack." Ichigo explained partial his battle plan, course he didn't want the Chief to know what the other part was. Hopefully he took the bait, as he stared into Unalaq eyes. They were cold and calculating while looking back at Ichigo's, which were not budging and determined. The Avatar was switching her gazes between the two.

"Understandable. If it were to the Avatar's benefit then I would understand for the training. If that is what she wants to do." The Chief finally spoke after the long silence. The firebender then sighed and then turned towards Korra.

"I promised you that I would train you about reiatsu. Do you want to learn?" Ichigo asked while turning his head toward the water tribe girl.

"Well I guess if it will help me with dealing with the dark spirits then yes, I would love to learn." Korra accepted the request.

"Well then it's settled. You're coming with me for the day." Ichigo said as he patted Korra's shoulder. "Come on let's go." He turned around and got on Naga. Korra soon then followed suit and they both left the Chief alone.

_"It seems I would have to get rid of Ichigo Kurosaki sooner than I would have planned."_ Unalaq thought to himself.

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><p>"ARGGGHHH!" Korra screamed in frustrastion as she sat in a meditative stance, at an isolated part of tundra in the South Pole. "This isn't working, Ichigo. Can't we just stop?" She pleaded with her instructor.<p>

"Nope no way, we can't have you going around with your reiatsu raging about." The man in question stated to his pupil. Over the ride here, Ichigo told her that reiatsu is basically spiritual power or pressure. The more you have the more likely that dark spirits will attack you and as the bridge between the spirit world and human world, she has large quantity of reiatsu if not the largest. Naturally, you can learn to control it, so that there would be less attacks, which was what the swordsman is teaching her today.

"Okay let me try something different." Ichigo said as he pondered for a moment. "Close your eyes and imagine a fire…"

"Yeah I get it. I did the same thing in my firebending training." Korra interrupted her sifu. When she realized what she did and also saw that Ichigo was giving her a glare, she quickly apologized.

"Sorry, carry on." Korra apologized as she closed her eyes once again.

"Well if the fire trick doesn't work then I have one more visual training method that might work." The teacher said. "Okay so imagine you're about to firebend. You feel the energy flowing towards your hand and turning it into fire?" Ichigo once again started their training.

The Avatar started to picture that and then slowly nodded her head once she got the image.

"Now try to stop that energy flow right before it turns to fire and bring that energy out." The orange haired teen explained the next part.

The water tribe teen did as before and tried to do what her teacher explained. Once she got a hold of the energy, she tried to bring it out the same way as she would the fire but it didn't work. The Avatar groaned in frustration as her millionth attempt at drawing out the energy ended in failure once again.

"THIS IS NOT WORKING!" Korra shouted as she flopped on her back and on the snow behind them. Naga was there lying down wagging her tail, thinking that the session was done and proceeded to get up and lick her best friend in the face.

"WOAH! Hey Naga we aren't done yet, could you please stop that?" Korra tried to get the polar bear dog to stop.

"Come on, Naga, let's get off Korra for now. You can slobber her up when we are done." Ichigo said as he guided her away from the now covered in slobber Avatar.

"Oh where you just getting back at me for when she slobbered up your hand, the other day?" Korra teased.

"Maybe. I shouldn't be the only one covered in drool around here." The swordsman replied.

"Okay that's it, Mister. Naga, go ahead." The girl commanded her polar dog.

"Wait wha.." Ichigo never got to finish his thought as the polar bear dog seemed to tackle him to the ground and started licking his face to no end. "That's not fair… It's two against… One" The swordsman speaking between licks, as he didn't want the drool to enter his mouth.

"That's enough, Naga." The Avatar called off her friend.

"Let's get back to your training." The orange haired teen said as he was getting up and trying to wipe off some of the drool left behind. "Well if visualizations don't work, then I guess I would have to try my last method then."

"What is your last meth-?" Korra didn't finish her question as Ichigo drew his sword and pointed to her neck. "What the heck Ichigo?" She asked as batted the sword away, the swordsman put it back into the same position.

"It seems that you don't have a good enough resolve in order to channel the energy. I'm going to see how strong your resolve to win is, in a fight." Ichigo calmly stated. Korra just looked at him, the way he said that so calmly, means that he had to train somebody like this before.

"I don't think it's my resolve that's the problem. The problem is that I can't do it!" The Avatar shouted a bit to her sifu.

"See that is what I'm talking about. How do you know that this won't help you until you try it." The swordsman said just as he dashed forward, swinging his sword high up trying to slash down on the Avatar. Korra just had enough time to bend some rocks to cover her and hopefully stop Ichigo in this crazy pursuit.

"That is not going stop me." The swordsman's voice said as he cut through the rock, giving enough time for the Avatar to flip away, giving her some distance from the swordsman. Naga sensed that her master was in danger and rushed in the middle of the battle, growling at her master's attacker.

"What's the matter? I thought you were the one who loved getting into fights." Ichigo taunted Korra.

"I'll be okay, girl." The Avatar reassured her friend. The polar bear dog seemed to get the message and went back to where she was sitting, keeping a watch over the swordsman. "You want a fight. Well here it comes." The water tribe girl said as her eyes lite up as she entered the Avatar State.

"This is where it gets interesting." The firebender said with a grin on his face.

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><p>A couple of hours passed after the swordsman and the Avatar had begun their battle. Both were heavily gasping for air as their battlefield was scarred with scorch marks, giant pieces of earth missing from the ground, and some vicious sharp ice pointing from the ground.<p>

"Can't say that I'm not impressed." Ichigo complimented.

"Same here." Korra complimented back to her teacher.

"But the way that this is going, we aren't going to make any progress so I am going to finish this." The swordsman said as he raised Zangetsu and it began to glow with a light blue hue around it.

"You still have some energy left?" Korra said shocked about how much power the strawberry had left.

"Yeah well you don't put all your energy up front, you keep some of it for reserve." The sensei shouted back at her. The energy started to intensify as some sort of howling came from the sword and Ichigo's eyes started to glow in the same color as his sword was covered in. The Avatar didn't have much energy to dodge, so she did what she normally does and readied her stance to face the attack.

"You won't survive the attack." Ichigo said like he was reading her thoughts. The water tribe girl ignored the comment and went into the Avatar state. The swordsman then sighed, and looked at the girl once again.

"Do you see the resolve in my blade?" Ichigo's voice bombarded his head. "All I see is fear reflected in yours." His mind flashed back, he was in the North Pole, in a similar stance. Before him was a girl with violet eyes, full of shock and fear, as she saw how the blade responded to the declaration of his resolve.

"Once again, do you see my resolve in my blade? During the journey towards the Southern Portal and after, there were times where you had fear in your eyes. Even now before me, I see that same fear in your eyes. Why is that?" The swordsman said calmly. That statement made Korra snap out of the Avatar State.

"What are you so afraid of? Is it dying? Letting one of your friends die because you couldn't protect them? Are you afraid of killing somebody? Or is the fear of losing your bending that great?" The swordsman bombarded the Avatar with questions.

"If you are going on the defensive, you make sure that you don't get hit. If you are protecting somebody, then you get stronger so that you won't them die. If you are attacking, then make sure you will cut them. And if your bending is at stake, then make sure you don't lose it!" Ichigo roared as the energy around Zangetsu grew with that statement. Korra processed the words he said as she hung her head low. Then Ichigo sensed the energy around her gathering up as the snow around her started to form in to a little vortex. She raised one hand up in a slashing gesture and once she got to the highest point, the energy intensified. The snow blowing past her, as her hair was being pushed up, revealing that her eyes were glowing like Ichigo's but didn't have a blue-ish hue to it. (A/N Her eyes are like in the Avatar State but not completely white, you do see her irises.)

"Finally, she gets it." Ichigo grinned at the progress of his student.

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><p>At chieftains' palace, the Northern Water Tribe Chief sensed two massive energies off in the horizon. He turned toward the direction he was sensing it.<p>

"What in the world is that energy?" The chief thought as he was staring into the sky. "One is Korra's, I'm sure of it but I don't know the other one… Wait that is the swordsman's. If they both have access to that kind of power then I have to put my plans into motion sooner then I thought." He said as he turned back into the palace.

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><p>Their energies intensified, growling at each other. It seemed like they were calling out for each other. As the swordsman and the Avatar gathered enough energy, they slowly lunged forward, swiping their handsword down while shouting out. A blinding erupted as soon as the two energies collided and a cloud made of dust and snow particles erupted. Once everything cleared, the two benders stood as a two crescent shaped slashed adorned the ground. The swordsman stood there grinning at the success of his student.

"That was reiatsu." The strawberry told Korra, as he lowered his guard and sheathed Zangetsu, back on his back. The Avatar looked down at the hand that shot the energy and clenched into a fist.

"It's just like energybending." She realized.

"You know how to energybend?" Ichigo blurted out, then immediately shut up as he realized that he shouldn't have said that.

It didn't seem like she heard him as she was still looking at her hand, she realized that the energy was building up again. She looked up at Ichigo again.

"Sorry Ichigo, but can you block my next move?" She requested.

What..?" The swordsman didn't get to finish his question as Korra punched and energy exploded through her fist. The white light engulfed a shocked Ichigo. As it cleared, the strawberry was still standing but had unsheathed Zangetsu, in the nick of time, and blocked the Avatar's attack. The attack still managed to leave a cut on the teacher's cheek.

"You're still up for a fight?" Ichigo said as he readied himself in a stance. He held his sword in his right hand and pointed towards Korra. He grabbed his right forearm with his left hand as Zangetsu's cloth wrapped around the rest of his right arm. He drew his left foot back. Korra just stood there, her hair covering her eyes, looking like she is going to take whatever her teacher is going to throw at her.

"BAN-" Ichigo stopped himself when he noticed that Korra was falling to the ground. The Avatar passed out on the ground. When the swordsman got to her, he saw that she just fell asleep with having spent all that spiritual energy. The orange haired teen sighed, and proceeded to pick her up to take her home. He put her on Naga's saddle, after reassuring the polar bear dog that wasn't going to attack her anymore and started his walk towards the tribe.

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><p><em>"You're not getting away with this, Vaatu."<em> A familiar voice rung out. Korra looked around and found that she was in this wasteland with two giant beams light pointing towards the sky. She then turned towards to the source of the voice and saw somebody looking exactly like Ichigo. He was standing with older looking man. Korra couldn't explain it but she felt that she had a connection to the man even though she never saw him before. He had bright gold-ish eyes, shoulder length brown hair with a goatee. He was clothed similar to the Ichigo doppelganger but instead of being black it was a mix of reds. The mysterious person was holding something in his hands but it was to blurred out to see what it was. She then turned around and faced a giant kite-like dark spirit.

_**"YOU THINK YOU TWO CAN DEFEAT ME?"** _The sprit's rang out.

_"We definitely can."_ The other man defied Vaatu. He turned toward his companion, grinning like they were best friends.

_"You ready Wan!"_ Dopple-Ichigo roared.

_"You bet, Ichigo!"_ The man known as Wan said as he charged together with his friend, Ichigo. Just then, everything was engulfed in a white light. Before Korra could wake up, she heard Ichigo's voice again.

_"I promise Avatar Wan."_ The voice echoed in Korra's mind.

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><p>She slowly opened her eyes but quickly closed after notice that there was too much light where she was. Korra winced and slowly got up as she put slowly cupped her head in pain. Since the Avatar couldn't open eyes at the moment, she felt around and noticed that she was in a bed.<p>

"Where am I?" Korra asked rhetorically. She didn't expect a response from her question but she heard her mother's voice replied.

"You're back home after you're training session with Ichigo." Senna answered and started to hug her daughter.

"Hey mom." Korra said as she opened her eyes and saw her mother hugging her. It was heartfelt and all but the Avatar's muscles were still sore from her training session. She winced a bit when the hug became a little too tight. With that Senna pulled out and looked at her daughter, she had a smile adorning her face.

"We were so worried." The mother expressed.

"What happened?" The Avatar finally asked.

"We don't really know. Ichigo came back here with you unconscious and Naga. Your father was upset when he saw you and once we put you in your bed, he gave Ichigo quite a talking. Your friend explained that you collapsed out of exhaustion from the training session and just needed to rest up." Senna explained.

"Where are they now?" Korra asked for the missing men.

"They are in the meeting with some of the southern water tribe." Her mother responded.

"Hey Water Princess, are you awake?" Ichigo choose this moment to open the door. Korra looked at the swordsman, he looked the same as before but adorning a bandage on his cheek.

"You need to hear this." He continued as with gesturing towards the door he just came in.

"I'm fine, thanks." The Avatar commented.

"Tch…I knew you would be fine. You collapsed because you didn't have much reiatsu left. That is the danger of using too much." The swordsman replied.

"Using reiatsu is like energybending but on yourself. Why didn't you tell me?" Korra told the swordsman her realization from earlier.

"First of all, I don't what energybending is." The orange-cropped teen said. The water tribe girl, couldn't tell is he was lying or not but decided not call him out on it. "Secondly, if it was similar to something else then why didn't you do it earlier?" he berated.

"Your visualization techniques were not helping." Korra quickly found a scapegoat for her spiritual problems.

"No they were not!" Ichigo was just as quick with his response.

"Both of you, stop it." Korra's mother said. They immediately stopped their arguing. Korra looked surprised, not seeing this side of her mother before. Ichigo, on the other hand, just sighed and scratched the back of his head.

"I'm sorry." The swordsman quickly apologized, both to the Avatar and her mother. " Are you okay?" He continued.

"I'm fine thanks. I'm sorry as well." The water tribe girl apologized. She got up from her bed and stretched out, some of her sore muscles. "So what do you want me to hear?" She asked, once she was ready.

"Just come with me and hear this meeting." The orange-cropped teen said while he walked back out and gestured her to follow. As she was following him, something came to her mind.

"Hey Ichigo, I had a dream but it felt like a vision from one my past lives." Korra decided to tell him about her dream.

"Oh yeah what was it about?" Ichigo asked, curiously hoping it was Wan telling her more. He didn't like to keep secrets from people that he could trust so the earlier the first Avatar got to telling her about Harmonic Convergence, the better. Korra started to ponder about it, as easy as it got in her head, it seemed to have left. She couldn't remember anything about it. The swordsman stopped when he didn't hear her following him. He turned around to find the Avatar stuck in thought. He walked back to her and waved a hand to her face, that snapped her out.

"So what was this dream about?" He asked for a second time.

"I don't remember anything about except that it was from a past life." The water tribe girl said.

"Well if it was important then you would have remembered it." Ichigo said as he mentally sighed.

_"Great so much for finally telling her the truth."_ He mentally berated himself

**_"I don't know, Ichigo. You can still tell her."_ **Zangetsu's voice took this opportunity to make itself known.

_"Yeah but then I will be breaking my promise to Wan. You should know by now that I don't break my promises with my friends."_ Ichigo retorted to the voice.

**_"Oh so you consider her you're friend? Your girlfriend."_** The voice teased.

_"She is not my girlfriend. She is just a friend."_ Ichigo embarrassed once again by the voice's teasing.

**_"But she is a friend who happens to be a girl."_ **It obviously knew how to push the swordsman buttons, considering how long they had to be together.

_"Shut up!"_ The orange haired teen shouted mentally back at the voice. He decided to end the conversation once Korra was giving him a confused look and the subject the voice was talking about was uncomfortable to Ichigo.

"Anyways we should get back to the meeting." The black clad teen told. The water tribe girl looked confused as one second her teacher was looking at her then blushed. He turned his head away from her, and then his face contorted from embarrassment to anger while still keeping his face flushed. All three of them exited from the room the same way Ichigo entered moments ago.

They entered the main room of the Avatar's parents' house. Korra saw that some of the southern tribe had gathered there. One man stood out from the rest, he wore a flamboyant business attire and seemed eccentric, with the gestures he was making.

"That's Varrick, controller of the global shipping business." The swordsman whispered to the Avatar.

"I know who that is." The Avatar whispered back.

"…I've got a cargo ship full of halibut that's rotting thanks to this harbor lockdown?" The business man said as he got enraged. "Who wants to buy a ship full of stinking fish?" He slammed a plate on the floor. "Seriously, it's not rhetorical. I need to sell these fish." Varrick asked the Southerners to buy his fish once his rant was done.

"Chief Unalaq is here to help the South. He wants to show us how to restore balance with the spirits so they'll stop attacking." The Avatar interrupted the meeting, still believing that her uncle has good intentions. He gave Korra no reason to doubt him so why should she.

"The only spirit I'm interested in restoring is our spirit of independence. Am I right, people?" The business man enraged the group except the Avatar, her family and Ichigo.

"All Unalaq is trying to do is make our tribes unified again." Korra once again got in the conversation.

"No, he wants control of our wealth. My wealth. And I like my wealth. If Unalaq doesn't pull his forces out, then we have no choice but to fight for our freedom!" Varrick once again got the gathering enraged again as they agreed in anger.

"You want to start a war? Are you crazy?" The Avatar questioned Varrick.

"Unalaq started this when the moment he put his troops on the Southern docks." The swordsman said. Korra shot him a look and scowled. "Sorry but it's the truth." He continued.

"Maybe you could speak with your uncle. Tell him how frustrated we all are. He'll listen to what the Avatar has to say. Do it for me?" Tonraq asked his daughter.

"I'll do it for the tribe." The water tribe girl angrily said as she walked away and slammed the entrance. The swordsman sighed then looked over to the former prince.

"That wasn't handled well. Ichigo could you look over my daughter." The Avatar's father suggested.

"Yeah, well I already took the day to train her so a couple more hours wouldn't hurt." Ichigo shrugged. He then proceeded to follow Korra, but not before he heard Varrick talking to Tonraq.

"Look, we all know where this conflict is heading. We need to start preparing for war." The businessman told, not knowing that the swordsman was hearing.

When he got outside, he saw the Avatar on Naga proceeding to leave. Ichigo walked up to her and waved to her to catch her attention. Korra looked back and scowled some more when she caught sight of him.

"What come to lure me over to my dad's side?" Korra asked annoyingly.

"What's with you and sides? Anyways I wasn't taking a side, I was just stating the obvious." Ichigo commented.

"Then why are you here?" The Avatar asked another question.

"Well you're dad asked that I keep an eye on you." The swordsman told.

"Figures…" Korra said as she rolled her eyes.

"That and we haven't finished training for the day." Ichigo explained. From that statement, the Avatar felt a slight shiver down her back.

"Are we going to fight again?" She said with slight fear, remembering their last training session.

"Nah I think beating you once in a fight is all that I need." Her mentor said

"What? NO WAY! I had you on the ropes." The water tribe girl defended her version of the fight.

"I'm not going to fight right now. You're going to learn how to read spiritual energy and track it." Ichigo explained.

"How do you track it?" The Avatar asked, clearly confused.

"Well now that you now how to use it, you can now try to feel the spiritual energy from the area around, then focus on one and try to follow it." Ichigo explained.

"Ok which one should I zero on?" Korra asked her sifu.

"Well weren't you going to your uncle? Try looking for his and track it down." Ichigo reminded her.

"Ok let's do this." The water tribe girl stated. She closed her eyes and meditated.

"Good. Now start bringi..." The swordsman said before ribbons of different colors started to appear around them interrupted him. He was shocked to see the progress Korra was making. The orange-cropped teen then noticed his spirit ribbon floating in front of him. It was a red color, the same as all firebenders, but it black flame patterns and on top was a black crescent moon. He then noticed Korra's ribbon. It was a pale blue, the same for all water benders but it had a weird kite like pattern adorning it like the moon on Ichigo's.

The water tribe girl started to get a feel of spiritual energy once more as she started to sense it around. She immediately noticed her teacher's energy as it was the closest to her. The Avatar saw that his energy, or reiatsu as he liked to call it, was white with blueish hue to it, same as his Getsuga Tensho attack. She dug a little deeper and found an energy that reminded her of a dark spirit, it was black with red hue around it, but it was suppressed.

"Ichigo, why do you have dark spirit energy inside you?" Korra asked her spiritual guide while keeping her eyes closed.

_**"Remember I told you that my powers are going to be harder to control, Ichigo."**_ The warped voice once again rang in his head.

"Well considering we are close to the Southern portal, it would be harder to distinguish from dark spirits and normal ones. You need more practice to clear fully tell the difference between the two." The swordsman gave a reason.

Korra felt that wasn't the reason why he had dark spirit energy, but something was telling her to trust him and that he has his reasons not to tell. Keeping her eyes shut, she decided to search out for her uncle's reiatsu.

_"Amazing. I didn't even have to tell anything and she already has gotten the hang of it. Also, she was able to sense Zangestu, even suppressed. Just how powerful can she be?"_ Ichigo questioned in his mind.

The Avatar in question then turned around and shot out her arm grabbing one ribbon. This one was a pale blue like Korra's but it was starting to have a dark red pattern on it.

"Got it!" The Avatar shouted at her success as she held the ribbon high. She didn't she pattern on said ribbon as she covered it with her hand. Ichigo did notice the pattern before she got ahold of it. To him it looked familiar but decided to put it off before hiding his own ribbon before the Avatar opened her eyes.

"Ok I found him. He's at the former chieftains' palace." Korra stated as she found her uncle's reiatsu.

"Ok then keep your senses honed on him and follow his energy." The sifu said as he climbed and sat right behind Korra on Naga.

"Wait… You're coming with me?" Korra questioned, surprised at the sudden action of her teacher.

"I'll wait with Naga outside. I don't want to talk with Unalaq, at the moment, still don't trust him." Ichigo gave his reason for not going inside. The water tribe girl got her polar bear dog to start heading towards the palace.

"I trust him maybe you should too. I mean he hasn't done anything wrong yet." The Avatar tried to reason with the swordsman.

"You don't know for sure. Anyways it's not my place to tell who to trust or what to do. We just met. It's up for you to decide." The swordsman replied. Korra looked back at him and gave a small smile. This gesture made Ichigo blush and turn his head away in embarrassment but not before he heard her whisper.

"Thanks for trusting me." The Avatar lightly said with enough force that the swordsman could barely hear.

They got to the palace in record time. Once there, the two dismounted their polar bear friend and headed towards the entrance. The orange cropped teen then hung out at the entrance and waited until the Avatar ventured unto the palace. He then sat beside Naga and started to meditate. The polar bear dog on the other hand tried to get the swordsman attention. She licked him, hoping to get him to play with her, he just ignored her. Once she figured out that Ichigo was ignoring her, the polar bear dog pinned the swordsman on the ground and proceeded to lick him until he gave her some attention.

"Ok…I get it you want some attention…Yyyyeeeeesssshhhhh." The firebender said as he beckoned for Naga to get off. Once she was, he got up and wiped off all the slobber off of him once again.

"I guess this is payback for what I did to Korra isn't it?" The swordsman asked the polar bear dog, knowing he wouldn't get a spoken answer. All he got from the dog was her happily panting, with her tongue out, wagging her tail and her once floppy ears pointed up slightly.

"Well let's see what we can do." The firebender pondered. He looked around for something that Naga can fetch with. He found a rock and decided to make it into a disk. Ichigo unsheathed Zangetsu and sliced the rock until he got a disk, about a foot in diameter and a half an inch in thickness. The swordsman re-sheathed his sword and picked up the disc.

"Ok ready, Naga?" Ichigo said, as he got ready to throw the disc. The polar dog sprang attention once she saw what the firebender was holding. He took a step and threw the rock disk as hard as he could.

"GO FETCH!" He shouted at the dog, as threw the disk. Naga chased after the disk, as it got closer to the ground, she waited until she could catch it between her teeth.

"NOT SO FAST!" The firebender said as he shot a blue fire from his hand right underneath the disk as floated up from the hot air the fire was giving. He shot a bit more underneath the disc to keep it from the jaws of the polar bear dog. Naga was running after the disc, waiting for it to lower. Ichigo stopped his little game and let the Avatar's animal companion have the disk. Once she brought the disk back, hoping for another game, Korra came out of the palace doors, looking a little distraught. The swordsman called for a timeout with Naga and went towards his student's side.

"Hey what's wrong? You went in there with a smile on your face, learning more about spiritual energy. Now you come out with a frown, what happened?" Her teacher asked about her sudden change of emotion.

"It went like this…" Korra started.

* * *

><p><em>Korra entered the throne room and saw her uncle meditating. He noticed her presence and opened her eyes.<em>

_"Korra, what are you doing here? Aren't you training with for the day? Our training session isn't until tomorrow." Unalaq confused at the sudden appearance of his niece._

_"I did, technically I still am but I'm here about our conversation this morning." The Avatar explained her presence._

_"Yes?" The Northern Chief asked._

_"I understand why you brought your troops here, but I'm afraid it's sending the wrong message." The water tribe girl explained._

_"Your father has been talking to you." The Chief scowled at those words._

_"Not just him. Ichigo and Varrick too. There was a meeting at my parents' house A lot of Southerners feel like their tribe is being invaded." She voiced the Southerners concerns._

_"I am their chief. I am uniting, not invading." Unalaq_

_"I know, but I'm just afraid if something doesn't change, there could be a civil war." Korra said in an understanding tone._

_"If the Water Tribes were at war, the other nations would take sides. The dark spirits would thrive off this negative energy, and the world would be thrown into a battle between spirits and man. That would be catastrophic." The Chief calmly said as he saw what would happen if the situation got out of hand._

_"How do we stop it?" The Avatar asked, desperately asking as she didin't know what to do with the situation._

_"We? No, Korra. This is a war only the Avatar can prevent." The Chief said as he sat up from his throne._

_"I'm usually the one starting fights. I don't know how to stop them from happening." The Water Tribe girl embarrassingly admits._

_"As the Avatar, you must remain neutral in this conflict. You will naturally want to help you people, but showing favoritism will not help out tribes finds unity." Unalaq showed her part._

_"Maybe Tenzin was right. Maybe I'm not ready to be the Avatar." The Avatar admits to her uncle, discouraged._

_"Tenzin lacked faith in you. But I have no doubt that you will become the most admired Avatar the world has ever known." Her Uncle complimented her._

_"Thank you, Uncle." She thanked him_

* * *

><p>"Sounds like he is saying what exactly he needs to say in order for him to get on your good side." Ichigo acknowledged.<p>

"Well at least he isn't keeping secrets!" Korra suddenly snapped at her teacher. The swordsman just looked at the Avatar and had a stern face on him. He was soon giving her a glare. The water tribe girl could suddenly tell he had a lot of time to practice that glare as she thought twice about what she just said.

"Have you ever thought about what he isn't telling you? Why after all this time, he suddenly wants to become your teacher? Don't you see that he is trying to make you trust him more than your own father? At least I'm telling you that I have secrets that I can't tell and the reason why is that I made a promise to a friend. I don't know about you but I keep my promises and I intend to keep this one." The Soul Reaper blew up at the Avatar. He suddenly turned away and started to walk once again in the Tundra. Korra's face acknowledged what she just did and started to chase after Ichigo. Naga followed her best friend and Ichigo continued on his track, a few steps ahead.

_**"Isn't this breaking your promise to Wan?"**_ Zangetsu's voice came back in the firebender's head.

_"Technically no, I just need space and time to think about my next step. Arrghhh…I don't even know how much time I have left until Harmonic Convergence." _Ichigo started to plan out his next moves.

**_"You've gotta month at best."_** The warped voiced replied back.

_"I need to train myself and her for that. Wan sure likes to wait until the last minute doesn't he?"_ The swordsman thought back.

"Wait…! Ichigo! Come back!" The Avatar said as she is trying to keep up. She grabbed his wrist and made him turn around to face her. "I'm sorry. I got carried away." She quickly apologized to the Soul Reaper. With his free hand, the swordsman rubbed the back of his head and he sighed.

"I'm sorry, as well. Sorry I have to keep all these secrets from you but you have to understand that I made a promise to my best friend that I can't break. You will learn the secrets in time though. I can promise you that for sure." Ichigo calmly stated.

_**"She is still holding your hand, Ichigo. The Avatar must really like you."**_ The sword's voice told him with its really awkward timing. The swordsman looked down and saw that Korra didn't let go. Soon his face was red as his namesake. The water tribe girl followed her teacher's gaze down to their hands. She noticed that their hands were still intertwined together. The Avatar soon turned the same shade of red as her teacher. She jerked her hand away in an embarrassing manner.

"Yeah well…uuuhhhh then I have some work to do. The Water Tribe isn't going to unite itself." Korra embarrassingly said, wanting to get out of the awkward situation before it got worst.

_"Why am I so awkward with Ichigo? I have Mako, why do I think he is cute? Wait did I just think he was cute? What's wrong with me?"_ The Avatar's mind was a sea of storms. Ichigo's brain was wracked with similar thoughts but unlike Korra's, he had companion with him which was spending every second teasing him.

_"That was weird. Does she like me?"_ The swordsman was confused.

**_"Now you get a hint. You know I was starting to think when you would get it through that thickhead of yours."_ **Zangetsu's voice cut in once more. The Soul Reaper pushed the voice away and his embarrassment. The Avatar got on her polar bear dog and gestured for Ichigo to get on but didn't lend him a hand to help him up, avoiding another awkward situation. The orange-cropped teen was thankful for that aversion.

"You don't have to do it alone, Korra." Ichigo said, which made the young Avatar turn towards him. "Even all great Avatars need some help once in awhile. Look at Avatar Aang, he couldn't have defeated the Phoenix Lord and the Fire Nation without help from his friends." He encouraged her.

"Come on we'll quell the tension together. Stop putting too much pressure on yourself. It isn't really good for you to have all this stress." He continued his little speech.

"Yeah but I'm the Avatar. I, alone, need to be keep balance in the world." Korra argued.

"It doesn't hurt to ask for help once in a while. Trust me I know, Water Princess." The swordsman teased. He got a chuckled from the Water Tribe girl then a look of annoyance.

"Would stop calling me that, Carrot Top?" Korra teasingly asked.

"Well I could but then I have nothing to call you that you find annoying. Also I will stop once you stop calling me Carrot Top." The Soul Reaper told her, and then bit his lip. He looked at her and she didn't seem to notice the accidental flirting. He mentally berated himself to stop putting pictures in his mind.

"Huh well then I guess I could stop calling you that name." The Avatar stopped teasing.

"Thanks…" Ichigo started.

"Strawberry. The other one was getting kind of old." Korra interrupted him. It took awhile for the swordsman to register what she just said. Once he did though, he got a look of great annoyance on his face.

"My name means "one who protects", not strawberry." The Soul Reaper argued. "Anyways let's go." He said, as he wanted to change the conversation.

"Oh wow I didn't know it actually meant that. Mako told me that it was strange that your name was a girl's name and that it meant strawberry." The Avatar mockingly said. When her boyfriend told her about Ichigo's name, she laughed and thought it was joke that he was playing. Mako told that he was serious and it is a name typically meant for girls. That made Korra lose it and her mind already started to tease Ichigo about it.

"Like I said my dad named me "Ichigo" because it means "one who protects."" Ichigo repeated himself.

"Wait your dad named you? What happened with your mom naming you?" The Water Tribe girl snapped out of her fit of laughter when she heard this.

"My dad took on her last name when they married. So they decided because of that, my idiotic dad decided the names of their children." The swordsman explained the reason why his name is different.

"What happened with your family?" Korra asked cautiously. Suddenly, the air around them got colder than you can get in the Southern Water Tribe.

"My mom died when I was 9 years old. My dad and two sisters died 6 years after that, when I was 15 years old. They were all killed by a dark spirit." Ichigo said as he remembered them like it was yesterday. The Avatar instantly wished, she didn't ask that question and felt bad for bringing it up.

"It's fine though, I'm about to turn 19 so it happened a long time ago. Like I told your dad, I've moved on from it." The firebender cheered her up. "What are we waiting for? Let's get moving before the day ends." He urged her to get moving, as they were wasting the day away, sitting here in front of the palace.

"Ok Naga let's go" Korra told her polar bear companion to go and they were off towards the village in a matter of seconds. They were walking down a snow-covered street where a group of four Northern soldiers glaring at civilians before being pelted by snowballs.

"Who threw those?" A solider demanded. He looked towards one of the rooftops to find some children giggling. Another solider waterbends and sends them to the ground.

"You hoodlums think you're tough, huh?" The solider questioned rhetorically. The civilians had enough and decided to intervene.

"Pick on a waterbender your own size!" A southern civillain shouted to get the soliders attention. Both groups got in stances, ready to attack, but before they could the Avatar and the Soul Reaper rode in between them on Naga.

"Stop!" Korra demanded.

"Tell these thugs to go back to the North. They're not welcomed here anymore!" A Southern civilian said

"These Southerners need to stay in line." A Northern solider retorted.

"Everyone, calm down. You're all part of the same tribe, start acting like it." Korra tried to placate the Water Tribe members. The Southerners were shocked to hear what the Avatar said.

"You're taking their side? We thought you were one of us." The first Southern civilian spoke up.

"She isn't taking anybody side. You guys need to calm down." Ichigo confidently said. He got off of Naga and then turned to address to both of the groups. "Everybody just walk away from this. It isn't worth the trouble."

"Says you! You're not even from here. You don't have to deal with invaders." Another civilian joined the argument.

"Hey stop, Ichigo is just trying to help. Why can't we just all calm down and talk this out." Korra got back in the argument. A little girl waterbended a snowball and threw it at the Avatar's head.

"Ouch! Hey, what was that for?" The Avatar angrily asked.

"You're the worst Avatar ever!" The little girl explained. She prepared another snowball and threw it but before it hit the teenager, Ichigo drew out his sword and blocked it.

"Hey that's not very nice. All she is just trying to help." The Soul Reaper commented.

"Everyone, walk away from this. They're not worth our trouble. Go back to your homes." Tonraq's voice suddenly cuts in. The former prince was walking up the street and put himself beside Ichigo and Korra. The Southerners decided to listen to their de-facto leader and dropped their water and leave while the Northerners, now sensing no danger, did the same thing. Korra was looking at the situation, frustrated that her dad came and helped her without asking her, she went departed from the scene.

"Korra…" The Avatar's father turned around and saw that his daughter as already leaving the scene. "Korra, I…" He tried to explain himself but soon the Avatar was out of hearing range. Her spiritual guide stood beside Tonraq.

"Well then I am going to follow my student before she gets into more trouble." The orange-cropped teen said before heading out.

"How do you help Korra without make her angry?" The former prince blurted out. Ichigo stopped where he was and turned to face Tonraq.

"I let her make her own path and even if that path isn't a good one, I will help her out." The Soul Reaper confidently said and with that he ran to find his student. The Water Tribe man stared back at Ichigo, thinking what he was just told.

* * *

><p>"Finally caught up to you." Ichigo expressed, as he breathed heavily. He managed to catch up to her near her house. The Avatar turned around to see her teacher with his hand on his knees gasping for air.<p>

"I thought you were with me." Korra argued.

"You left before I noticed also you're on a polar bear dog, I might add." The swordsman retorted. They were walking up to Korra's hut when they saw Mako outside ready to greet his girlfriend. Once his eyes caught sight of Ichigo, they had a twinge of jealousy in them.

"What was he doing with you?" The policeman asked, defensively.

"Woah, calm down hothead, I'm Korra's spiritual guide. I was just teaching her for the day." Ichigo retorted. He noticed that the other firebender still looked at him with a little bit of anger.

"He also was trying to help me to ease the tension between the tribes." Korra added in. The stress in his face eased a bit as he heard that. He turned towards to his girlfriend, giving her sympathetic look.

"Sorry. How was your day, sweetie?" Mako quickly apologized. Now it was the Avatar's turn to get angry.

"Oh, fabulous." She started sarcastically, and then scowled. "My tribe's about to go to war, and I'm supposed to stop it, but will anyone listen to me or Ichigo? No! And I didn't ask for my father's help. Can't he just let me be the Avatar?" Korra ranted as she and Ichigo got off Naga.

"Uh, do you want advice, or am I just supposed to listen? I'm still not clear on that." The policeman confused which situation he should partake.

"Ugh. I'm sorry. My dad just gets me all worked up." The Water Tribe girl atoned.

"How about you take a break from all this Avatar stuff, and we go out for a quiet dinner. Just the two of us." Her boyfriend offered. The Avatar grinned about that idea. They couldn't go out much as they had jobs to attend to but made an effort to go once in a while. Korra was happy until she looked at Ichigo, who had kept Naga entertained by scratching her head. The Soul Reaper noticed the silence and turned his attention from the polar bear dog to the couple.

"What are you looking at?" Her spiritual guide gave her confused look. "Cause if you're inviting me to that dinner, it's okay I have other stuff to do right now. Also, you guys should appreciate the time you have together." He said wisely, with that he said his goodbyes and headed off to the thundra.

As his body was walking off, his mind was somewhere else at the moment.

* * *

><p><em>"Why did you that for?" Ichigo said as he got kicked in the face.<em>

_"You Idiot! Why did you go off on your own to the Dark Spirits' base? Why didn't just wait for me to come help you?" Rukia's voice echoed in his mind._

_"Because I had no idea if you were actually going to come back or not…" The Soul Reaper explained._

_"OF COURSE I WAS NO MATTER WHAT!" The petite water tribe girl shouted in his face, interrupting him. His eyes widened at that revelation._

_"We're friends right?" The violet eye girl's voice echoed in his mind._

* * *

><p>"Well you heard him let's go!" The Avatar said to her boyfriend as she had grin for one side of her face to the other.<p>

Korra and Mako's grin turned into a bored expression once they got to the restaurant and saw that Bolin made them double date with him and Eska. All five of them sat in one of the booths with food Naturally, Desna was there as well as the two twins never seem to leave each other's side. The earthebender looked nervous beside the twins.

"Isn't this fun, huh? We never get to spend enough time together, just the... five of us. So fun." Bolin said awkwardly. The twins looked at each other.

"Excuse us while we retrieve more sustenance." The female twin said as they both got up and left the table, just as their waiter came.

"Hello my name is Ichigo Kurosaki, I'll be your new waiter as your last one had to go home sick. So what will you guys be having?" Ichigo asked, not paying attention to the table he was servicing. The three benders looked at him, like they just saw a ghost. Bolin rubbed his eyes and stared at him then towards his brother and his girlfriend, who had similar looks of shock. The familiar waiter didn't hear anybody ordering, he looked up and saw whom was he talking to.

"Great…the one restaurant that offered me a job for the night is the same one that you guys went to." Ichigo scoffed and rolled his eyes at this discovery.

"ICHIGO! Maybe you can help me with my girl troubles." Bolin expressed. The swordsman raised an eyebrow at the earthbending brother and decided to hear him out.

"Ok what is happening?" The strawberry asked.

"Well a couple of days ago, I fell in love with the Northern Water Tribe Princess, Eska. But after spending a couple of days with her, I want to break up with her. I asked Mako for advice but it was horrible because every time I bring up the subject, she threatens to freeze me in a block of ice and feed me to dolphin piranhas." Bolin expressed his last days to Ichigo.

"So it was more like you tugged at the leech." His brother joined into the conversation.

"Not talking to you, Mako." The earthbender disclaimed.

"What was his advice?" The waiter questioned.

"Just break up with her. It's what guys do all the time." Bolin repeated.

"Is that what guys do all the time, Mako?" The Avatar berated her boyfriend. The probender replied to his brother before turning to Korra.

"Why didn't you warn me your cousin had the power to reach into my heart and crush my soul with her bare hands." He desperately asked

"Uh, 'cause I thought it was pretty obvious?" The Avatar stated the obvious.

"No, no, not to me it wasn't. I'm very bad at reading people. You should know that by now. Oh, man. Oh! Do something, Avatar!" The earthbender sobbed for help.

"Hey woah, you have to man up and break up with her. Don't dump your problems on somebody that is never the way to go." Ichigo suddenly gave his advice.

"Yeah but…" Bolin quivered in fear a bit.

"You don't have to take that. Just be honest on why you want to break up and I'm sure she will understand." The swordsman interrupted.

"Anyways I have to wait other tables, I'll be back. You better order something next time we meet." The orange-cropped teen said before he left the group with his thoughts. After they were done eating, the group went their ways to their respective sleeping arrangements. Korra, on the other hand waited for Ichigo to finish his shift. He came out dressed with his black robes and his giant meat cleaver of sword strapped to his back.

"You didn't have to wait for me." The swordsman told the Avatar once he saw her.

"No I didn't, I wanted to." The Water Tribe girl said as she got off the wall she was leaning on. "Listen do you have somewhere to stay tonight. I just noticed that you don't have a house here, is all." She nervously asked.

"What is wrong with me? Why am I so nervous around Ichigo now?" The Avatar thought, she tried to push the thoughts away but they keep coming back in her head.

"I'm staying in one of the hotels here that's why I needed this job to pay for it." The orange-cropped firebender explained.

"Oh well why don't you stay with us, it will be free and you can keep some of the money you made." Korra invited her sifu to stay over.

_**"Looks like she is inviting you over, Ichigo."**_ His warped voice appeared in his head.

_"Really, what got you all talkative for the past few days. I miss the days that you were silent most of the time."_ The swordsman berated his sword.

_**"That was a long time ago, King. Besides, I have to get on your nerves on way or another. It gets really bored in here after a while."**_ Zangetsu's voice replied back at him. "Anyways aren't you going to go with your girlfriend?" It teased his friend.

_"Will you stop that she isn't my girlfriend. Yes she is a friend who is a girl but it doesn't go beyond that."_ Ichigo closed that train of thought from the sword.

_**"Well I don't know about her but I'm in your mind, Ichigo. I can hear the thoughts you have for her."**_ The voice counterattacked.

_"I have no idea what you are talking about."_ The orange haired teenager denied the voice. He caught Korra looking at him weirdly again, so decided to cut off the discussion in his head.

"Yeah, I guess I could crash for the night, just let me get some of my stuff." The swordsman accepted and they went over to the hotel. Shortly after that they were on their way to Korra's house riding on Naga. They enter and find Senna sitting on a couch. Upon seeing her mother, the Avatar got a little upset.

"Did Dad send you to talk to me?" She inquired.

"Your father doesn't know I'm here." Her mother responded. Korra sat beside her mother. "Korra, what's going on between you two?" It was Senna's turn to ask questions.

"I'm just gonna go and put my stuff away." Ichigo said before the conversation could go any further. He left the hut and deposited his backpack in the hut next to the Avatar. The Soul Reaper went through his stuff again to make sure he didn't forget anything. He pulled out a second change of clothes, a sleeping bag, and a bronze medallion. This medallion was pentagon shaped. In the middle was a black design that looked like a pointed skull surrounded by lines in a x formation. There was a chord tied on the top of the pentagon. The swordsman took the medallion in his hand and grinned.

"Man, when was the last time I saw this." Ichigo said as he gazed at the skull medal. His mind ventured into the memory of when he got it.

* * *

><p><em>All of sudden, he was in the tundra. In front of him was a petite woman with black hair, shaped in a bob, and violet eyes. He remembered her name was Rukia Kuchiki. She was wearing traditional water tribe clothes. She was holding out her hand to the swordsman. The hand had something in it.<em>

_"What's in your hand?" The Soul Reaper curiously asked_

_"It's a gift for helping me yesterday." Rukia explained._

_"You don't have to give me gifts. I just did what I thought was right." He tried to refuse the gift._

_"YOU IDIOT! I don't leave my debts unpaid for." She definetly said_

_"But you didn't need me there. The way you waterbend, you could've handle the situation easily." The Soul Reaper retorted._

_"I can't show my streng..." The waterbender started then noticed something he said. "Wait when did you see me waterbend?" The orange-cropped teen froze._

_"You were peeping on me when I was training! Weren't you? You little perv." Rukia caught him._

_"I'm not a perv. I was just passing by and saw you that's it." Ichigo quickly explained himself and blushed._

_"You're lying! If you were just "passing by" then you could've kept walking but you didn't." The Kuchiki girl smugly said._

_"Arrggghhh why is it so difficult talking to you." The swordsman said._

_"Just take my gift and I'll forgive you, Strawberry." Rukia smirked._

_"For the last time, my name means one who protects, not strawberry!" The Soul Reaper said, frustrated. He took the gift in his hand and clenched around it. It was pentagon shaped and had a weird skull design on it._

_"I designed and made it myself." The girl proudly proclaimed. " I mean if you are a Soul Reaper then you should have a badge that says so." Ichigo looked at it._

_"Doesn't look cool?" Rukia asked._

_"It does except why does this bunny look like a skull? It's very badly drawn" The swordsman criticized. The Kuchiki girl waterbended a snowball and threw it at his face. Once the snow fell off, it revealed a very angry Ichigo._

_"That's it! You're asking for it!" He shouted as he got in a stance._

* * *

><p>The Avatar's spiritual guide had a small grin while he had the medallion in front of him, hanging by its chord. He was snapped out of his memory when he heard shouting coming from the hut where Korra and her mother were. The swordsman rushed outside to see if there was any danger present. Once outside, he saw that there were no dark spirits attacking but the Avatar leaving the hut with her mother in tow.<p>

"KORRA!" Senna shouted as she tried to catch up to her daughter. The Avatar got on her faithful polar bear dog companion and left. Ichigo went towards the Avatar's mother.

"What happened?" The swordsman inquired.

"I told Korra that I knew that Tonraq and Tenzin locked her up at the compound while she trained. Also that Varrick is starting rebellion and…

"He asked , didn't he?" Ichigo interrupted her. "I sort of figured that out. Well is he part of it?"

"I don't know." The woman admitted.

"Well from what I know of , he doesn't want his family being pulled apart, so I don't think he joined. Korra doesn't know about that so she thinks that he is apart of the rebellion. Do you know where she went?" The swordsman quickly deduced.

"Probably to warn Unalaq." Senna guessed. "Can you please look out for her?"

"Yeah no problem. Though she is probably half way there." The swordsman smiled while scratching the back of his head. "Better get going then?" He said as he took off after his student. Once he was out of sight, he began searching for her reiatsu.

"Well she is certainly close to the place. There is only one way I can catch her." Ichigo said as he grabbed Zangetsu and unsheathed the sword. He once again held his sword in his right hand and pointed forwards. He grabbed his right forearm with his left hand as Zangetsu's cloth wrapped around the rest of his right arm. He drew his left foot back.

"BANKAI!" Ichigo shouted as his blue flames surrounded him. The flames turned black with reddish hue as the swordsman emerged.

His robe was replaced with a long-sleeved black coat with a hood and red lining. It closed at his chest and flared out to ragged edges just above his ankles. His meat cleaver sword turned into a normal sized one, albeit slightly longer, and instead of cloth that dangled from the base of the hilt there was a short length of chain with a broken link at the end. The sword was entirely black and had square like guard with four prongs bent out to what looked like a swirling flame pattern.

The orange haired teen put the hood on and proceeded to raise his left hand to his face. He drew in some of his dark spirit energy, which was black with a reddish hue, and swiped the front of his face. The energy then formed around his face and turned into a white menacing skull-like mask with two thick vertical black stripes, each on one half of the mask, which were interrupted by the widened eye-holes and the jaw. The jaw was filled with sharp white pointed teeth. After mask was summoned, Ichigo's eyes became yellow and he had black sclera and pupils. Also the mask somehow integrated itself into the hood so it wouldn't fall off when the swordsman would be running.

_**"Tensa Zangetsu. Okay. Now let's get to the Avatar."**_ Ichigo said with a warped voice which was similar to the one in his head. He got into a running position and then blasted off into the horizon. He reached the palace without anybody noticing. He looked around and saw some Northern troops tied up and unconscious.

"Turn around, Avatar, and pretend you didn't see anything." Ichigo heard the voice coming from down the hall. He followed it to find the Avatar confronting three men kidnapping her uncle in the middle of the night. He kept to the wall beside him as he thought that Korra could handle the men.

"No. Leave Unalaq and go. I'll tell him I tried to stop you, but you escaped. We can still avoid a war." Korra refused to listen to the voice.

"No, we can't." The rebel leader said. The leader then swings his arms and hammers the floor with his fist, creating an ice wall that travels towards Korra. She rolls to the side, and the wall separates her from the rebels as they make their escape. Korra punches through the ice wall, demolishing it, and chases after them. As the rebels run down the stairs, Korra bends an ice slide onto the railing and grinds down it on her feet. She launches herself off the end of the rails, corkscrewing in midair before landing in front of the rebels. Ichigo got out of his hiding place and proceeded to hid behind the waist high wall they just left from.

"Get him out of here!" Their leader shouted to the rebel carrying Unalaq. Korra follows them until another ice wall blocks her path. She steps back from the wall and turns her attention towards the rest of the rebels.

"We're all part of the same tribe! I don't want to hurt you." The Avatar pleaded once more to deaf ears. The Water Tribe men started to attack the teenager with some water. She dodges the attack and rolls between two pillars. Using some airbending to power her jump, Korra avoids another jet of water and grabs the hanging tapestry. She then runs to her right as one of the rebels bended another stream of water and turned it into a large ice crystal. Ichigo was still in his hiding spot as he fought with himself not to go in and help.

_"This is her fight. If I help her now, she wouldn't forgive me. She needs to do this on her own." _The firebender brought a conclusion to the storm in his mind.

The rebel leader throws more streams of water at Korra, hitting the pillars as she runs behind them. The rebels move in closer to her. Korra runs up the side of a pillar and uses airbending to leap off, dodging more attacks. Still in midair, the Avatar throws the tapestry over two of the rebels. They stagger for a bit before Korra uses more airbending to wrap the tapestry tighter and knock them over. She rushes over to the last two rebels; they bend some more water at her which she avoids the attack by doing a cartwheel and a flip. The Avatar lands between the two and dodges a punch thrown by the leader as she grabs the lasso on his belt. The other rebel charges her intending to tackle her but the Water Tribe girl simply does a sidekick to knock him out. Korra quickly turns her attention back to the leader as he punches twice at the young Avatar, but she weaves out of the way, spinning her body around and wrapping the lasso around his arm. Korra uses the lasso to pull him off balance, then uses his momentum to swing him around in a large circle, throwing him into a pillar and knocking him out. Korra quickly runs around the pillar with the rope, trapping the leader there, essentially trapping him there.

_"Atta Girl, Korra, subduing your opponents without using violence." _Ichigo praising his student in his head.

The teenage girl then follows the kidnapper to the exit. Once she got out of his sight, the Swordsman proceeded from his hiding spot to get to the roof of one the palace buildings so he could get a better view. The Avatar looked as the rebel who still had her uncle get away on a snowmobile.

"Dad stop!" The Avatar shouted to the kidnapper thinking it was her dad, as she pursued him.

_"So she thinks it is her dad? Let me see…" _The masked teen thought as he sensed the reiatsu of the rebel. _"Nope it's not him. I guess I was right Korra's dad wouldn't harm his brother."_

The Avatar runs down a few steps before jumping off the side of the stair case. She steps onto the ground and waterbends an ice ramp in front of the snowmobile which loops to the side. The kidnapper and Unalaq fall off the snowmobile which crashes into the ground. The kidnapper groans and begins to sit up, and Korra approaches him.

"Why did you do this, Dad?" The Water Tribe girl asked as she pulled of the mask of the rebel. She was shocked when it wasn't her father but instead a water tribe man with short hair and a beard. "What? Who are you? Where's my father?" The Avatar questioned the kidnapper.

"He wouldn't help us. He's a traitor just like you." The man answered. Unalaq was just regaining consciousness and getting up.

_"Now that everybody is ok, that is my cue to leave." _Ichigo thought as he got up on the rooftop. As he was getting ready to leave, Korra noticed a dark energy near them. She got into a stance and looked around for the source when she saw a human sized dark spirit with a trench coat, a black sword and the weirdest thing of all, a white mask. Before she could react though it disappeared into the night, probably the spirit went back from where it came from. The teenager couldn't help but feel that she saw the sword somewhere before.

* * *

><p>"What happened here?" Ichigo said as he came onto the scene again. He was back at the palace, this time in his normal state, to witness the rebels getting handcuffed.<p>

"Ichigo, what are you doing here?" The Avatar questioned her sensei.

"Your mom thought you might need my help but it seems that isn't necessary." The firebender quickly replied.

"You betcha'. Anyways, I saw a dark spirit at the palace" Korra exclaimed.

"Really?" The Soul Reaper asked as he made sure nobody saw him.

"Well didn't have a good look it was wearing a long, hooded black trench coat and had a long black sword to match. Weirdest thing though it had a white mask that looked like a skull and that it didn't attack like the other dark spirits." The Avatar described the strange dark spirit.

"Maybe it was doing some reconnaissance for the dark spirits." Unalaq suggested. The swordsman gave the Chief a little glare.

"Yeah maybe it was." Ichigo agreed, a little weary.

_"Why is he defending me? He clearly knows about Vaatu so why doesn't he rat me out?"_ The Swordsman thought.

"Anyways back to the task at hand. I want you to find Varrick. I want him to freeze in prison with the rest of these traitors." Unalaq decreed"Wait, you can't just lock them away. That will only make the South angrier." Korra pleaded with her uncle.

"You want them to go free?"The Chief surprisingly asked.

**"**No... but let them stand trial for what they did. Every Water Tribe citizen deserves that right." The Avatar explained. Unalaq gave her words some thought.

"Very well. I will respect the Avatar's wishes in this matter." The Chief gave the rebels a fighting chance.

**"**Thank you, Uncle." Korra thanked her uncle. She turned to her other spiritual guide and bowed. "Thanks for the lessons." The Water Tribe teenager gave thanks to his lessons.

"Eh, yeah. You're welcome." Ichigo embarrassed as he bow down as well. "Let's stop wasting time here and get back to your home." He quickly avoided the situation. Korra didn't mind, as she needed to talk to her father. They both headed towards Naga and got on the polar bear dog. The trio made haste through the tundra in the early morning.

_"Interesting I didn't think Ichigo would use that form so quickly. Well, time to put my plans into motion sooner then I thought." _The Chief thought as he retreated back into his palace.

* * *

><p>They arrived Korra's parents' house in the later morning. Ichigo and Korra both off of Naga when she came to a halt. The Avatar was hesitant to go to her parents' house. Her sensei noticed.<p>

"Korra, what's wrong?" He asked.

"It's just I don't know what my parents will say, with the way I was treating them, even I would be mad at me." She worried.

"Hey, first of all, you don't know that for sure. Second, don't forget I'm here with you so you don't have to face it all by yourself. Come on let's go." The swordsman encouraging her as they both towards the door. Ichigo let her go in first to deal with the situation. Tonraq and Senna were eating as they looked up to see their daughter in the doorframe with her second spiritual guide behind her. As soon as their eyes made contact, Korra looked down hesitantly.

"Is it alright if I come in?" The Avatar asked her parents nervously.

"Of course. We heard what happened. Are you and Ichigo okay?" Senna replied with a concerned look. That sent Korra over the edge as tears flooded her eyes. After the way that she treated them, they still care for her. The tears ran down her cheeks as she closes her eyes shut and she runs towards Tonraq and hugs him around the neck.

"I'm so glad you weren't there. I don't know what I would have done." The Avatar confessed to her father.

"I had no idea how far Varrick was willing to go. My brother and I have our differences but I would never attack him." Tonraq quickly comforted her daughter.

"I'm sorry for thinking you had anything to do with the rebels, and for all the pain I've caused you and Mom." The teenager apologized for all the pain she caused.

"I'm the one who should apologize. After I saw The Southern Lights return, I was so proud of you. I never should have held you back."

"When your father and I found each other, all we wanted was to live a simple life and raise a family. But then we discovered you were the Avatar, and simple was over. We knew one day the world would need you, and you wouldn't need us anymore."

"Mom, Dad, of course I still need you." Korra said as she started hugging her parents with some tears in her eyes. The swordsman, standing in the doorway, looking at the scene, couldn't help but chuckle a bit. It was real heart-warming moment that doesn't need to be ruined with unwanted onlookers. With that notion he turned away from the door until Tonraq's voice come from the house.

"I know you don't have family anymore but you are welcomed here at any time." The former prince extended the welcome and gestured the swordsman to join in the group hug. Ichigo turned back to the family and entered in the house. He walked back into the house and took Zangetsu off his shoulders. The sword less swordsman leaned his sword against a wall and sat down in front of the meal that Senna prepared.

"Thanks for the invite, I will gladly take it but I'm not into that family stuff trust me." The swordsman accepted the home arrangements but politely refused the hug. They broke off the hug and Senna grabbed plates and utensils for their daughter and the swordman. Ichigo felt the warmth that this family was radiating. He couldn't help himself but chuckle and remember one of the few happier moments of his past.

_"Come and eat, Ichigo." A little girl's voice filled his head._

_"Come on, Ichigo. We aren't going to start without you." Another girl's voice came in this time._

_"My poor son if you don't come and eat, I'll eat all of your food myself." A man's gruff voice came in this time._

"Hey Ichigo, what are you thinking about?" Korra asked the smiling swordsman. It was rare moment to the Avatar to see her teacher have a little grin on his face like that. Usually it was in its scowling mode or an embarrassed one she caught from time to time. Ichigo seemed to snap out of it from the memory.

"Nothing, just remembering my family a bit. The warmth right here just reminded me of them." The swordsman replied. Tonraq's face had a little bit of guilt in it. He didn't want to remind his daughter's teacher about what he had lost. He felt horrible when he was banished, he couldn't imagine what Ichigo was going through when he lost his family.

"It's fine, Sir. It happened a long time ago, so I've had time deal with the loss. Also I think its better to remember the good memories with them." The swordsman said as he noticed the guilt in the father's face.

"That is good. For the future, don't call me Sir; it makes feel older than I am. Also, you are living with us now so Tonraq is just fine." The former prince quickly told the swordsman to get rid of the honorific.

"Thank you Sir…Tonraq. If there is anything that I can do to repay this debt, I will." Ichigo said with difficulty.

"All I ask is that you keep on training my daughter and also keep her out of trouble." The father said.

"Dad…" The Avatar said embarrassedly.

"That is a promise." The swordsman accepted. Before they were to dig into the dinner, the Northern Water Tribe Chief walked into the doorway.

"We weren't expecting you." Tonraq said when he noticed his brother. Everybody turned his or her head towards Unalaq.

"Tonraq, Senna, and Ichigo Kurosaki, you are under arrest and will stand trial. The Northern Water Tribe Chief said while four of his soliders entered their house. Ichigo glared at Unalaq.

"Trial? For what?" His brother asked the reason for this sudden arrest.

"For conspiring to assassinate me." Unalaq revealed his reasons.

* * *

><p>DUN….DDDDDDUUUUNNNNNN….DDDDDDDDDDUUUUUUUUNNNNNNN.<p>

Well there you go Chapter 3 of A Reaper Among Benders is finished. I'm thinking of making a story about Ichigo's past in this world. It will take place in between Book 2 and Book 3 of the A Reaper Among Benders timeline. If you have any comments about this please PM me or put it in your review of the chapter.

Anyways I'm going to crawl back into my corner and cry my feels out from the Book 3 finale gave me. See you guys next time with A Reaper Among Benders Chapter 4: Civil Wars and Revelations Part 2.

Please review and also no flames.

This is Akito Decimo signing off.


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